Harry Potter and the Mystical Key
by cbrownjc
Summary: Update Chpt. 7, Pt. I: Another in the BtVSHP crossover genre. A chance meeting and dark alliances lead Buffy, Dawn and the Scoobies into the world of Wizards, Witches, and assiting in the Second War against Voldemort. HarryDawn, RonHermione
1. Summers Night

**Title:** Harry Potter and the Mystical Key

**Author:** CBrownJC

**Disclaimers:** Joss Whedon, J. K. Rowling, and their associates own both worlds. I'm just blatantly stealing from them, but only for the fun of it.

**Rating:** PG-13 (For Now)

**Summary:** Another in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Harry Potter crossover genre. A chance meeting and dark alliances lead Buffy, Dawn and the Scoobies into the world of Wizards, Witches, and assisting in the Second War against Voldemort.

**Spoilers:** All of BtVS, and the Harry Potter novels though _Order of the Phoenix,_ with spoilers for _Half-Blood Prince_ starting in Chapter Five and continuing from there. This story runs concurrent with season five of _Angel the Series_ as well.

**Relationships:** The main one will, of course, be Harry/Dawn. (Look at the title of the story if you still don't get why). I've read a few Harry/Dawn fics and really like the idea of that pairing, and so decided to try my hand at one. The other main one will be Ron/Hermione. There _might_ also be little side romances with other members of the Hogwarts students body, as well as some of the Scoobies. However, as of right now, that's a really big "might," so don't be disappointed if it doesn't happen.

**Timeline:** Obviously, I have messed with the known timeline of Harry Potter to make this story work. But for the people out there who really need to know this stuff: The events of _Order of the Phoenix_ coincided with the seventh season of Buffy. Which means the events of _Goblet of Fire_ coincided with Buffy's sixth season, and so on and so forth. So instead of the events in Harry Potter taking place sometime in the early and mid 1990s, they have taken place during the same years Buffy took place (the late 1990s and early 2000s). I've given Dawn a late birthday, like Hermione has, instead of one in the summer as most fan writers suppose she has.

**Author Notes:**

Right now, this story is about 20 Chapters long, though it could end up one or two chapters more or less. I'm hoping to keep it to about 20 though.

I've been looking around and reading some Buffy/Harry Potter crossovers lately, and decided to try my hand at one, because I wanted to try and avoid some things that keep bothering me about a lot of them:

1. Everyone who was dead - or thought dead - at the end of Buffy Season 7, and _Order of the Phoenix_ will be remaining dead. There will be no bringing back to life of Sirius Black, Anya, Tara or anyone else. Willow has learned her lesson about that, and Harry is going to angst and grieve for Sirius, of course. But that's all. Spike is in LA with Angel at Wolfram & Hart, per_ Angel the Series_. However, none of the Scoobies know he's back, as was pretty much implied on the show. The world of _Angel_ doesn't really play much - if any as of right now - role in this fic.

2. Draco Malfoy in this story will not be fanon!Draco. Namely, he isn't going to change from being a prejudice Mudblood hater in two chapters because he's just a big softy underneath, or because he falls in love with one of the "good" guys. I'm not saying I _completely_ rule out the idea of a Draco Redemption, or Draco Redemption stories (as I've read a few that have been done really well), but if that's the main thing you're interested in, you'll be disappointed. This story is mostly told from Harry's POV. So Draco will, for the most part, continue to be what he is in the books - one of Harry's antagonists.

Final Note: This chapter has been slightly edited to fix a few grammar mistakes.

* * *

**Chapter One: Summers Night**

It was only one week into the summer holidays, and as he walked along the streets of Little Whinging in the warm July afternoon, Harry Potter was already wishing for it to be over, so he could return to school.

A black-haired, skinny boy with black rim glasses that framed his bright green eyes, Harry had grown at least an inch or two more since the previous summer, when the residents of Little Whinging had last seen him. His clothes hadn't seemed to improve any from those views of him last summer, however. A baggy and faded T-shirt, faded jeans and old hand-me-down trainers were still all he ever wore.

Harry, however, had changed quite a lot since he had walked the streets of Little Whinging last summer. He felt much older than his soon-to-be-sixteen years.

Since Sirius had died, only two weeks before.

Harry Potter was a wizard, and attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And he knew he'd much rather be there right now, instead of walking around Little Whinging in the late afternoon, with nothing to occupy his mind except dark thoughts about his now dead Godfather.

The Dursleys were already making it a point to ignore him as much as possible, after the warning that Moody and the others had given his Uncle Vernon to treat Harry right while he was with them at Privet Drive this summer. The Dursleys could never treat him right, of course, so the next best, and easiest thing was to ignore him outright as often as they could. Ignoring him wasn't the same as being treated badly. Being ignored just meant he wasn't being treated in anyway directly.

On the whole, however, Harry didn't care that the Dursleys were, for their part, ignoring him. They had even stopped caring when he came back from his walks around Little Whinging. Last summer, he would get an earful if he came home only just a minute after his cousin Dudley. One day last week, he'd come home two hours after his cousin, and all his Uncle Vernon had done was snidely inform him that if he couldn't make it home in time for dinner, then he would just have to do without.

Harry didn't really take much pleasure in the afternoon and evening walks he took. Yes, it did get him away from the Dursleys and Privet Drive for a time, and there was nothing else that he had to do that could occupy his mind. He knew his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were with the Order of the Phoenix, the group Headmaster Dumbledore had organized to fight against Voldemort. But their letters didn't contain much info about what the order was up to.

When he had been short of this type of news last summer, it had angered Harry more than anything. Now, he found himself not really caring one way or the other about what the Order was up to.

He knew he was being watched and followed by order members for his protection, but found himself not really caring one way or the other about _that_ either. He assumed his guard detail had been changed since last summer also, so as not to draw attention to who they were, even from him.

Once in a while, he found himself wishing that Voldemort _would_ try something to confront and kill him. It would at least get the inevitable final confrontation, that had to happen between them sooner or later, over with.

His attention was so occupied with all of his dark and jumbled thoughts, that he wasn't watching where he was going. And so he bumped directly into a person that had been walking in the opposite direction on the narrow pavement.

"Sorry," he murmured, glancing up. He had walked into a sullen looking, brown haired girl in jeans and a red top. She was around his height. She looked at him, annoyance added to the sullen expression. He didn't know her, nor had he ever seen her around Little Whinging before.

"It's okay," she said, her tone indicating more of a _watch-where-you're-going_, than _it's-alright_ however. She continuing onto wherever she had been headed, brushing past him.

Harry gave her retreating form a mildly annoyed glance of his own -_ it was a bloody accident _- before continuing on his way.

The sun was going down and it would be dinner soon, but, for the third time this week, Harry didn't feel like eating at the Dursleys. Dinner was just the same as any other time he was in the house, except more so. The only reason he was ever spoken to was an order to pass the salt or potatoes.

He had some Muggle money in his jeans pocket. More of it was hidden in the floorboards in his bedroom. He had written to Gringotts two days after the first time he'd missed dinner, asking them to take a specific sum of gold out of his vault, exchange it for Muggle currency and send it to him.

The money had arrived a few days later by Owl Post, and Harry had taken the opportunity to skip his second dinner at the Dursleys that night.

When he had come back, his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had said that he's missed dinner and would, again, have to go hungry. He had just told them he wasn't hungry and gone to up to bed.

Harry figured that if he at least ate breakfast and lunch there, he could miss the evening meals and they wouldn't wonder or care.

He headed over to a local Cafe, and took a seat by the window. He placed his order with the waitress, (a corn beef sandwich, a bowl of soup and some tea), and then sat and watched the people outside walking by, as he waited for his food.

He wondered if some of the people that walked past, that he did not recognize, might be his new bodyguards.

No one he spotted looked like they could be a witch or wizard, however. Most of his kind had become very cautious of going out now, what with Voldemort back again.

Among the traffic of people walking along the pavement, he noticed the brown haired girl in the red top he'd bumped into earlier, walking across the street. She had the same sullen expression on her face as she'd had before, as he watched her enter a small bookshop.

Some time later, as he was eating his food, he noticed Dudley and some of his friends walking by across the street as well. Dudley had told his parents that he was going out for tea with his girlfriend that day, though Harry had wondered about the truth of that. For one, Dudley _did_ have a girlfriend, oddly enough. A skinny, Aunt Petunia-like girl with limp blond hair, named Nancy. She had come over for dinner once or twice, and Harry had seen her and Dudley snogging in the play park a few times.

However, having a girlfriend hadn't stopped Dudley from trying to chat up other girls as well, especially when he and his gang of friends were together. Harry had, unfortunately, witnessed some of those acts as well.

This line of thought led Harry to a stray thought about Cho Chang, the pretty Ravenclaw girl he had gone out with only once last term. He hadn't really thought of her at all since he'd come back to Privet Drive. That one date had been a disaster and, by the time Sirius had died, Harry knew he just didn't feel the same way about her as he'd used to.

Harry stayed in the Cafe after he'd done eating, until just after sunset. Afterwards, he headed for the local play park, near Privet Drive. It wasn't late, and he had no desire to head back to his Aunt and Uncle's just yet.

As he reached the corner, near the play park, he heard someone talking very loudly and very vulgarly that sounded familiar. Rounding the corner, his suspicions were conformed. It was Dudley, and with him, two other of his gang of friends and hanger-on's.

A high, female voice was shouting now, over Dudley's.

"Get your hands off me, you big creep!"

It was the brown haired girl again, the one he'd walked into today, and then noticed from the Cafe going into the bookshop.

Harry wondered for an idle moment if she was following him, if she was one of his bodyguards.

However, that didn't seem likely, as at the moment, she was being accosted by Dudley and the other members of his gang, and hadn't pulled out a wand or anything to defend herself with.

"Well, she's a feisty bird, hey big D?" Dudley best friends, a tall, scrawny, rat-faced boy named Piers Polkiss said. Harry knew Piers quite well, unfortunately. Dudley and Piers had been best friends since they were kids, and had been one of Harry's chief tormenters during that time, along with Dudley. Piers' main function in Dudley's little gang was to hold people while Dudley slugged them.

His job description now seemed to have been expanded to holding young girls hostage, as one of his lanky hands was gripping the arm of the brown haired girl, holding her in place on the pavement.

"That she is." Dudley smirked. He winked at the girl. "Come on then. Just tell me your name. That's all I want to know."

The girl's face was flushed red with anger. "Let. Me. _Go!_" She said though gritted teeth.

"Aw, she's getting' her knickers in a twist," a crab-faced boy Harry didn't know said, with a sneer. "Maybe she'd prefer Piers or me instead, Dud."

"Shut up Jack," Dudley snapped, barley glancing at the boy. He smirked at the girl. "She's just shy, aren't you?"

"_Leave me alone_," the girl growled, her bright blue eyes flashing with anger.

The boys laughed. "Or you'll do what?" Piers sneered.

"Better be careful," Harry said, coming up from behind them, finally making his presence known. "You don't know what some people are capable of. Isn't that right Big D?"

Dudley turned around and faced Harry, his face suddenly going red.

"Hey. Isn't that your weirdo cousin D?" Jack asked, looking Harry up and down as he walked up.

"What are you going to do weirdo? Let us pummel you?" Piers smirked.

Harry kept his eyes focused on Dudley, while he answered. "Oh, I'm quite sure something will happen before that could _ever_ happen," he said with a big grin, mockingly. "Right Big D?" He knew Dudley would get the meaning of what he was saying. For emphasis, Harry placed his hands in his back pockets, the right one of which held his wand.

Dudley's face went from red to pale in what seemed only an instant. "You're not allowed." he said in a low voice.

"Things've change Big D. Dangerous time now. You want to try me?" Underage wizards had always been allowed to use magic in extreme, life threatening cases. This didn't qualify as one at all, but Dudley knew that the wizard that had killed Harry's parents was back. So Harry knew that Dudley really had no way of knowing if the restriction on Harry using magic outside of school had really been lifted, or not.

Harry glanced at Piers and Jack. Both looked ready to take Harry up on what he asked, Jack already pushing up the sleeves of his shirt, his hands curling into fists. _Please try me. Come on guys; let's have a go . . . ._

Dudley, however, looked as if that were last thing he wanted. His large face had gone from pale to a sickly green now.

Harry noticed the girl looking back and forth at this exchange between him and Dudley, but she didn't say anything.

Instead, she acted.

Without warning, she locked both her hands together in a fist and, using the force of her free arm, hauled her trapped arm back, elbowing Piers directly in the ribcage.

Hard.

There was a loud thud as the girl's elbow made impact with Piers chest. Because he had been caught off guard by her act, he promptly let go of the arm of hers that he had been holding.

This then gave the girl an even better advantage than before.

All Harry saw was the swing of her fist, and heard Piers gasping, "You bloody bin-" as her fist made contact with his face.

She wasn't strong enough to knock him flat on his back. However, Piers head did snap back with a _pop!_ as her fist struck its target.

Harry stared open mouthed at the tableau, somewhere between surprise and laughter, as he watched Piers gasping. One arm was rapped around his chest, the other was holding his nose, and Harry could see something red beginning to seep through his fingers.

"Ma nose! Tshe boke ma nose!"

"And I'll break something else if you all don't get away from here," the girl threatened, looking around at Dudley and Jack.

Harry, chuckling, rejoined smiling at his cousin. "And I'll be more than happy to help her with that, in the way I can," Harry said, one hand still on his right pants pocket.

Dudley paused for only a moment, then took hold of Piers and hauled him forward, away from the girl and Harry, his bloated face now a high red again.

"Buth D, tshe -!"

"Move it!" Dudley snapped, pushing Piers ahead of him. They hurried down the pavement, Piers still holding a hand against his bleeding nose.

Harry couldn't stop chuckling and he watched Dudley and his friends retreat and finally disappear from view as the rounded the corner. He turned to the girl beside him, still laughing. "That. Was. _Brilliant._"

The girl's angry glare relaxed at his words, and she smiled a small smile.

Harry returned the gesture. "Alright?" he asked.

The girl shrugged, rubbing her arm. "I'm okay. Thanks."

They both went quiet again for a few moments, just looking at each other. The girl's long brown hair had streaks of blonde in it he noticed, giving it a bright and shiny appearance. She had a rosy pinkish complexion, and was dressed in a simple pair of jeans that flared out around her boots, and a dark red thin strap tank, with a matching light jumper tied around her slim waist, as the night was rather warm. The light from the lamppost brought out the brightness of her wide light blue eyes.

"So, are you really related to that guy?" she asked, waving a hand in the direction Dudley and his friends had run off in.

"My cousin, unfortunately."

"Has he always looked like a beached whale?"

Harry gave another snort of laughter. He didn't realize it, but in the space of few minutes, it was the first time he'd laughed in over two weeks. "Ever since I can remember."

"Then really, thanks for the help. Shamu and his gang of lackeys . . ." she shook her head, her pretty face screwed up, and she gave a mock shiver of disgust. "Eee-yah!"

Harry stuffed his hands into in his front jeans pockets. "So. You're not from around here," he noted.

She gave a short nod of affirmation. "Nope."

"From The States?"

She smiled. "Was it the accent?" she asked, exaggerating her speech, making it sound more prim and proper.

Harry's smile grew. "Pretty much."

"I'm from California," she informed him, as she sat down on a nearby park bench. "Born and raised."

He sat down next to her. She seemed nice, though he was still a little on his guard. One thing he'd learned was that you could never really know who was a supporter of Lord Voldemort. "Visiting family here?"

"Not so much." She paused. Then, gave him a rueful look. "More with the finding a new home, since the old one is now a big hole in the ground."

He looked at her, confused. "What?"

"I'm from a town in California called Sunnydale," she told him. "Or, at least, I _was_ from there. Don't know if you've heard it on the news over here, but the town's little more than a giant hole in the ground now, which the entire place sank into."

"Oh, yeh, I have heard about that place." The news of it was, actually, on the front page of the _Daily Prophet_ for two days straight. The collapse of the Hellmouth in Southern California had sparked a lot of interest in the Wizarding world. The Muggle papers had called it a sinkhole, and a freak accident. The Wizarding world, however, reported that the University town had sat right on top of one of the most powerful Dark Nodes on Earth. There had been much speculation about the cause of the collapse, until the conformation from the Ministry of Magic of Voldemort's return came out after the incident in the Department of Mysteries, and pretty much took everyone's attention away from it.

"So, you're moving here?" Harry asked her.

She shrugged. "Maybe. My sister - well, her boss is British, and he's, you know. Setting up his business here, and stuff, so we might be staying." Then, her voice became a low grumble. "Or, at least, my sister is."

She sounded rather bitter. "And you're not staying?" _Maybe she prefers to stay in The States,_ he thought.

"I want to stay too," the girl sighed, tiredly. "My _sister_, however, wants to send my off to Italy to go to school." She shook her head. "A Boarding school, and an all girls one at that. Can you believe it?"

She sounded disgusted at the very thought of going away to school. _And here, I can't wait to get away from the Dursley's and back to _my_ school._

"I go to a boarding school," Harry told her, after a pause.

The girl looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "Really?"

Harry nodded. "Yes. It's really quite a great school actually. I like it there much more than I like being at home even."

She looked at him, searchingly. "Oh. Is - is it an all boys school?"

"No, it's girls and boys."

The girl smirked. "Well then you're school's already 100 points ahead of the one my sister wants to send me to." She sighed again, looked down at the ground and kicking a stone she noticed with one of the nice boots she was wearing on her feet. "We had a fight about it this morning, and I kind-of stormed off. We're staying at an Inn in London, but I've already seen everything there is to see _there_ in the past two weeks. So I hopped a ride on the rail system at the nearby station, and got off at the first stop I wasn't familiar with, and just started walking. So, this is . . ." She looked around for a second. "Surry, right? The only other place I've been, besides London, is in Bath where Giles lives. And this town's called Little Whiting, right?"

"Little _Whinging_," Harry corrected her, gesturing toward the carbon copy homes across the street. "And you won't find much that's interesting here. Little Whinging is pretty dull and boring."

"Trust me when I say, dull and boring in a town? Nothing to regret."

Harry looked at her. She was smiling at him, almost as if she had just shared some kind of secret with him. Still, he couldn't help his contradiction in reply. "And trust _me_ when I say Little Whinging falling into a sink hole would be an _improvement."_

The girl didn't take any offence, just gave a snort of amusement, and nodded in a way that let him know she understood that the town they were in was known more to Harry than her. If he said it would be improved by being swallowed into the Earth, then she accepted it.

He was surprised to find himself noticing that she was quite a pretty girl; now that she wasn't wearing the sullen expression she's had on her face when he'd first bumped into her earlier, of course.

"M'name's Harry, by the way," he held out his hand to her, suddenly feeling rather awkward, though he didn't know why. "Harry Potter."

She took his hand and shook it firmly, her bright blue eyes fixed on him, her full lips spreading into a friendly grin. "Hey, Harry. I'm Dawn."

* * *

He and Dawn (Summers, she'd told him her surname was) sat talking together for over two hours. She and her sister had just recently come to England a few weeks ago, with some of her sister's friends who also worked with her. She told him about how she'd been on the last bus that had left out of Sunnydale right ahead of the collapse. 

She'd asked him if he was just staying with Dudley for the summer, and he'd told her about his parents having died when he was a baby. She, in turn, told him about her mother having passed away from a brain tumor when she was fourteen, and her dad being pretty much absent since she was a kid.

Talk of her sister wanting to send her to boarding school came up again, and he told her stories of his boarding school. Not that it was a school where Witchcraft and Wizardry was studied of course, but everything he could tell a Muggle who knew nothing of the magical world. Dawn did seem to like hearing about his school, but was only half-cheered up about her own boarding school prospects.

"It's just, I feel like Buffy - that's my sister - she's just. It just feels like she thinks the people who she's training are more important than me sometimes."

"Training?" Harry asked. Dawn had never mentioned what kind of work her sister did.

"Uh . . . yeah." For some reason, Dawn gave a start. As if just realizing what she'd said. "Yeah, training. She's a trainer. You know, for the business she works for. And everything." She glanced at her watched then, and Harry felt as if she was conscious of having almost said something she shouldn't have. "Oh is it that late? I'd better get back to the old inn, before there's a search party sent out for me." she said, quickly changing the subject.

_She's covering about something, _Harry thought, his eyes narrowing. He'd done such things enough times, since he'd discovered that he was a wizard, that he recognized it in Dawn's behavior.

Talking with her, he knew she couldn't have been an Auror, or one of the Order of the Phoenix members assigned to watch him that he ever saw. She was too young. (She'd mentioned that she'd turn 17 on the 1st of October.)

She couldn't be a witch. When he had told her his name, she hadn't shown the slightest shock or surprise learning who he was. Every witch and wizard in the Wizarding world knew who he was. He'd seen her looking at his scar once or twice, but again, not in the shock and surprised way most people in the Wizard world did. And she hadn't asked him about it.

He'd stop thinking a while ago that she could maybe be a Voldemort supporter. If she'd really been some kind of threat to him, he figured one of the Order members watching him would have done something by now, interrupted them, if they'd thought she was any kind of threat. And Voldemort didn't have Muggle supporters, as he hated all Muggles and Muggle-borns alike.

However, even if she was just a Muggle, she didn't seem like the type of Muggle the Dursley's were. Someone who would think that magic, and people like Harry, were weird and not "normal." She had a feel of something magical about her, even though everything about the way she talked and acted spoke of someone born and raised entirely in the Muggle world. Once or twice, however, Harry had gotten the feeling that if he'd told her about the Magical World, that she wouldn't have been surprised to learn of its existence. Though he didn't know why, exactly, she gave him that impression.

_Could she maybe be a Squib?_ Harry wondered. _Like Mrs. Figg?_

Dawn looked at him, and ran her hand through her long brown hair. "Uh, I've walked around so much today, I'm a little turned around. Do you, like, know -"

He smiled. "How to get back to the rail station?"

She grinned, sheepishly. "Yeah-huh."

"Here, I'll show you," he said, rising from the bench.

"Cool, thanks."

Harry couldn't keep from smiling, something he'd rarely - if ever - done since Sirius' death. He was curious about what she had just covered about, (or for), but he'd also really enjoyed talking with Dawn. (Though, sometimes he'd felt he'd only understood two-thirds of the things she'd said, with her strange speech patterns.) More enjoyment he'd had in almost anything since he'd gotten back for summer holidays, that was a fact.

They talked lightly as he walked her to the bus line stop that would take her to the rail station, to take a train back to London. At the line stop, however, their conversation began to die out a little. And for only the second time since they'd began talking, Harry started to feel awkward again.

_You might never speak to, or ever see her again once she leaves;_ the sudden thought shot through him like a jolt. Not only wasn't she from here, but she was a Muggle as well. Even when Harry was younger, and hadn't known he was a Wizard, he hadn't had any friends who were Muggles. Dudley had seen to that.

After he'd started Hogwarts, he'd met and made many friends, especially Ron and Hermione. All of them Wizards and Witches. After that, he'd just had no reason to look for Muggle friends, or even to meet any his own age. He'd spent most of his Summer Holidays focusing more on when he could leave the Dursley's and go back to Hogwarts, not trying to make friends with any of the other kids who lived around Privet Drive.

And because Dawn wasn't aware of the Wizard world, getting in touch with her again, if only just to talk, would be impossible to do though any magical means, like the Owl Post. Wizards - especially underage ones - were not allowed to reveal themselves to Muggles. It was only allowed in cases when a magical birth was noted in a Muggle family, like Hermione's parents, or certain people in Muggle Government, like the Prime Minister.

When she'd asked him about why he was living with the Dursleys, he'd told her about his parents having been killed when he was a baby, although he couldn't tell her the full truth of it of course. He hadn't used the lie his Aunt and Uncle had told him when he was younger, about them being killed in a car accident, however. Instead telling her the truth, that they'd been murdered, only leaving out the true nature about the man who'd done it.

Aside from Hermione, the only thing he'd really ever found to talk to most girls about for any length of time was Qudditch. He hadn't even mentioned his favorite sport to Dawn, however. She had also seemed to really listen, and understand, about having both of his parents gone. Something he didn't always think Ron and Hermione really got, no matter how hard they'd always tried to understand about it.

And, if he wanted to be able to not only talk with her again, but also to maybe just hang out with someone - giving himself something to _do_ - while he was stuck staying with the Dusley's for the time, then there was only one thing for it:

_He was going to have to ask her for her phone number_.

Asking such a thing of a girl, (especially one you'd only just met), wasn't really necessary among witches and wizards, as almost all communication was done by Owl Post. And Post Owls could find anyone you wanted to send a message to, so there was never any need to ask the person where they lived, or where. Also, those wizards and witches who hadn't grown up in the Muggle world, like Ron, didn't even know how to use a phone. Harry remembered the time, before the start of his second year, when Ron had tried calling Harry at the Dursley's, and had ended up yelling over the phone at his Uncle Vernon.

Just then, the bus pulled up.

"Is this the one?" Dawn asked.

Harry checked the number. "Yeh, it is. It should take you right the station."

"Okay. Good."

There was an awkward pause again. _Just ask,_ Harry though, working up the will.

Then, just as he started to speak, she spoke as well, also in a rush:

"Would-you-like-my-number?"

"Could-I-get-your number?"

Dawn blushed as she giggled, and Harry felt his face growing warm as well, as he broke out into a grin.

"Guess we both had the same idea, huh?" she chuckled.

"Yeh."

Her cheeks still flushed, she pulled out a piece of paper from her purse and handed it to him, along with a pen, and he jotted down his number for her. She took it back from him, ripped a piece of the paper off from under where he had written, and wrote something down herself. Then handed it to him.

"That's my hotel phone and room number. If a bossy girl answers, that's my sister Buffy."

Harry laughed and nodded. "Okay."

"Thank you for the help. See you later?"

"Yeh, see you."

Harry stood and watched as Dawn climbed up on the bus, and took a seat by the window near where he was standing on the pavement. She waved as the bus pulled away, and he waved back, watching as the bus drove off with Dawn, until it was out of sight.


	2. The Date

**Author's Note:** I never meant for this chapter to take so long to write. I thought Chapter One was hard, but this was harder, which just shows how rusty I am writing fiction. Hopefully, as I go along, I can get the next chapters out much quicker, but these first couple will probably be the hardest and the longest you wait for. (Writing only from Harry's POV - like J. K. Rowling does - is really hard, but I'm determined to do it that way.)

Thanks for all the reviews! Again all reviews welcome, including criticisms. (Only OMG YUR STORIE SUX!11! type comments will be ignored.) Replies to feedback are at the end of the chapter.

Final Note: This chapter has been slightly edited to fix a few grammar mistakes.

* * *

**Chapter Two: The Date**

"Contrary to popular Muggle mythology, this world did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons vicious demons walked the Earth. They made it their world, their domain. However, in time, they lost their purchase on this world, and the way was made clear for mortal animals. For man. All that remains of the old ones were vestiges; certain creatures and certain magicks …"_  
_

_ -- from A History of Magic, First Year Textbook_

"She just ran off the stage?"

"Yep! Right in the middle of the scene. And Xander was saying his lines so fast you'd think he was in a race or something!"

Harry laughed heartily at the story Dawn was retelling about her sister and friends disastrous rendition of the play _Oedipus Rex_ for their High School Talent Show. Dawn had only been 10 years old at the time apparently, attending the event with her mother. However, she seemed to remember the incident down to every small detail, as if she'd told the story repeatedly many times, and she told it to Harry now with great aplomb.

He and Dawn were sitting in the same Café where Harry had been in before, when he'd spotted her heading into the bookstore across the street, treating her to dinner after the afternoon the two of them had spent at the movies.

It was now a little over a week since the incident with Dudley and his gang, and he and Dawn had been meeting regularly every afternoon since. One day they had even taken a trip into London, and the two of them had visited many of the sites of the city that Dawn had tired of after two weeks, and Harry had rarely gotten to see at all, even with having lived so close to the city all of his life. She hadn't seemed bored, however, visiting some of the places she had already been to, and they'd both had fun acting like visiting tourists that day.

They had taken to meeting each other by the bus stop that Dawn took to and from the rail station, instead of having Dawn meet Harry at the Dursleys. She has called the house the day after they'd first met and, after that incident, Dawn had said she had to no desire to meet his Uncle Vernon face to face.

Harry had assumed that, being that Dawn was a Muggle, she of course would know how to use a phone, and not shout over the receiver as Ron once had at his Uncle if he happen to answer the phone first again. (Which Harry knew he more than likely would.) And, with the order from Moody and the others to treat Harry decently having put a little fear into his Aunt and Uncle, he figured he wouldn't be denied a simple phone call.

Unfortunately, the "treat Harry decently" order, (which, for his Aunt and Uncle translated to completely ignore his existence when at all possible), did not extend to his friends.

His Uncle had accosted her - in a harsh voice - when he'd answered the phone, asking her if she was one of "those people," and then hung up on her without even calling Harry the phone to talk to her. (Though he had overheard his Uncle's end of the conversation from the top of the stairs, and knew it was her who had called.)

"What did he mean by that?" she'd asked Harry, when he'd secretly called her back an hour later. "One of _what_ people?"

"Oh. Um, he meant one of my parents friends. He and my Aunt didn't really like my mom and dad, or any of their friends. Remember?" he asked, referring to what he'd told her the night before, and why his Aunt and Uncle treated him as they did.

"Oh. Yeah. Well, as long as I don't have to meet that Ogre, want to hang out or something this afternoon?"

Harry chuckled. "Absolutely."

Since then, Harry's mornings mostly consisted of staying in his room after breakfast, either staring at his summer lessons that went undone every day, or brooding over the latest non-news story about "The Return of You-Know-Who", as the _Daily Prophet_ had come to call it.

After lunch, however, he would leave and meet up with Dawn, and they'd spend the rest of the afternoon and evenings together. Harry, for the first time in what seemed like forever, felt that he was really enjoying himself. Everyday, for the past week, he'd found himself looking forward to the time after lunch when her could get away from the Dursleys. To just get away, (as it seemed to him), from everything that was happening (or not happening) with Voldemort, if only for the afternoon.

And Dawn was great. Funny, smart.

And sometimes, the way the fading sunlight hit her hair, like it was doing right now as they sat by one of the windows in the Café, gave it an almost dark golden appearance.

His palms suddenly felt sweaty, and he became so focused on wiping them with his napkin that the sound of Dawn saying his name rather insistently made him jump slightly, and he knocked over his glass of water, spilling it across the table towards her.

"What? Oh, I'm sorry Dawn! I didn't -!"

With a slight jump, Dawn pushed her chair back a little to avoid the water as it made its way to the other side of the table and began to dribble down onto the floor. She grabbed her napkin, and began mopping the water up.

Harry shook his head in frustration, his face growing hot with embarrassment. Just brilliant! He thought bitterly. He started to apologies again, but Dawn waved him off. A high pink color was spreading across her cheeks.

"It's okay Harry. It's just water. Really." she said as she finished mopping up most of the water on her side of the table, moving her chair back closer to the table again.

"Uh - er - did you ask me something before? I'm sorry, I didn't hear what -?"

"Oh. Um . . ." her cheeks still had that high pink color to them, and she bit down on her bottom lip. "I, uh, said Amiee Mann is in town, playing in a club in London? And I thought, maybe, we could, like, go see her tomorrow night. If you want to," she added in a rush.

"Oh . . . uh, who's Amiee Mann?" Harry asked.

Dawn looked at him like he was a sinner primed and ready for a conversion.

"Only one of the best singers ever! She played in my hometown a few months ago. I didn't get to see her, but one of my friends did, and I have all her CDs. She's wonderful!"

"Well, okay. Sure." Harry nodded, and smiled. "Sounds like fun."

* * *

They'd agreed to meet at the Inn Dawn was staying in, instead of her traveling all the way out to Little Whinging, and then them both having to catch the rail back into London. 

Harry thought he had started getting ready in plenty of time the next evening, but each time he put on some clothes, he found himself hating what he was wearing, and would change clothes again.

_All my clothes are too big, _he thought with distain, as he changed shirts for the fifth time. Being that all his clothes were hand-me-downs from Dudley, and Dudley was almost 5 sizes bigger than Harry, Dudley's clothes didn't fit even in a stylishly too big way. All they did was just hang on him, making him look even more the poor cast-off even he had thought he was, before he'd discovered he was a Wizard.

_It doesn't matter. Dawn doesn't care about your clothes, even though she always dresses so stylishly,_ he told himself again, as he buttoned up the fifth shirt he had changed into. _It's not a date we're going on, anyhow._

_But it would be nice if it was, wouldn't it?_ A little voice in the back of his mind said.

_Dawn and I are friends. That's all,_ he reminded himself firmly as he unbuttoned his shirt, and grabbed another one.

_Because you've never tried to make it anything else,_ the contrary thought fired back. _She's pretty. Really pretty. And she's got such a nice laugh, not that high pitch squeal that lots of other girls, like Pansy Parkinson, has. I like making her laugh. And she's fun, and . . ._

Harry sighed, the shirt buttoning suddenly forgotten, and sat down on the end of the bed.

_And the look in her eyes. Especially when she talked about her mum dying. I've seen that same look in my eyes, when I've looked in the mirror sometimes._

He had written to Ron and Hermione just that morning, but he hadn't mentioned anything about Dawn to them. Not one word. In a way, he had just wanted to keep her to himself for a while.

Now, however, he really wished Hermione were here, or he had at least told her about Dawn. Because she would know what to tell him, being that she was a girl herself. She'd know . . .

_Hermione'd know if there was anyway I could tell if Dawn really fancies me . . . the way I do her._

_I like her._

Harry sat there, looking at himself in the dress mirror across from him, a lopsided grin on his face. He noticed that he'd put right back on the same shirt he'd first put on when he'd started getting dressed to meet Dawn over a half hour ago. He said the thought over again, out loud this time, and it gave him a nice, warm feeling:

"I like her."

_Does she like me in the same way, however?_ He just didn't know. For instance, did blushing, like she'd done at the Café yesterday, count? Or was she only doing that because she was embarrassed about the water he'd spilled all across the table, like a total klutz?

She didn't act like any of the girls at school sometimes did around him. More than once since he'd arrived at Hogwarts over five years ago, he'd see a group of girls looking his way, smiling and then turning to giggle with their friends. He knew most of the girls who admired him like that only did so only because he'd managed survive an unblockable curse that should have killed him when he was a baby.

_And I didn't even_ do _anything. It was only because of a prophecy that I wasn't killed._

He knew the reason Dawn didn't act that way around him was because she didn't have the slightest idea who he _was._ At least, the way girls in the Wizarding World knew who he was. To Dawn, he was just Harry Potter; the boy who she'd met near the play park one evening, the guy who had a beached whale for a cousin, and an Ogre for an Uncle.

Harry, whose parent's were just tragically murdered, not killed by a Dark Wizard.

_Not_ "The-Boy-Who-Lived."

To Dawn, he was just Harry.

And, after everything that had happened at the Department of Mysteries, and with Sirius and finally finding out about the Prophecy what felt like years ago - but was only just a few weeks ago - he really liked that.

He really liked _her._

He just had no idea how _she_ felt - which, again, was the problem.

He smoothed down the front of his shirt, made on last attempt to tame his wild black hair, and headed out of his room at a short clip. If he didn't hurry, he was going to miss the bus to the rail station. Yet, as he headed by the living room, a voice called out, telling him to stop. It was his Uncle Vernon.

"Where're you off to then?" he asked, as he lowered his newspaper, in a sour voice.

Harry knew his Uncle really didn't care, and had probably only stopped him because had rushed by the room in a hurry. Harry glanced over at the clock near the door. If he didn't leave in the next five minutes, he was going to be late.

His Uncle, and now his Aunt Petunia and Cousin Dudley as well, were all looking at him each with different type of snide look on their faces, waiting for his reply.

"Well?" Vernon asked testily.

Harry sighed. "Out." Then, couldn't help smiling, as he said, "I have a date."

Their absolutely dumbstruck expressions caused Harry's smile to grow more smug. His Aunt and cousin were just blinking their beady eyes at him, as if they hadn't quite processed what he'd just said. His Uncle Vernon stared at him and sputtered, stupidly.

"A - a date?"

"What, with a _girl?_" Dudley scoffed, finally finding his voice.

"Yes." Harry knew the smug look on his faced was growing, but he didn't care. "You know her. 'Bout this tall, long brown hair, American. Has a _brilliant_ right cross."

Dudley scowled, his face turning an almost beet red color.

"You know the girl he's talking of Dudders?" Petunia asked her son.

Dudley snorted, still scowling. "Meh. She's nothing special. Not like Nancy."

"I'm sure she isn't!" Vernon bellowed. "Great girl that Nancy is! You hold onto her son. This girl you're going to see," he looked at Harry, peevishly. "That the same girl who called here before?"

He was _definitely_ going to be late. "Yes."

"Don't say 'yes' in that tone with me boy, or you won't be goin' anywhere. This girl. She one of - _your_ _lot_?"

"No. She's a Muggle." _Not a Muggle like _you_ though_, Harry thought.

"You mean to say - this girl's _normal?_"

Harry didn't bother answering, just stared at his Uncle icily.

Petunia looked back and forth between her husband and nephew. "She's American you say?" she asked, snidely.

"Yes. From California."

"Hm! Well, _that_ explains it then!" Vernon exclaimed, as if being from America - and California to boot - was the equivalent of being from the Wizarding World in his eyes. "Although - does she know what you are?"

"No, she doesn't know I'm a _Wizard_," he said pointedly.

"Thought as much." Vernon paused for a moment, and then sniffed in distain. "Well, she'll probably pitch you anyway when she finds out what you are, even if she _is_ American," he said, lifting his newspaper back in front of his face again.

Harry rolled his eyes as he made his way, finally, to the front door. "I'm going now," he said, leaving without even a glance back, without bothering to say when he'd be back.

In the end, because of his Uncle's hold up, Harry had had to sprint to the bus stop, but he just made it with no time to spare, winded and slightly parched from the muggy heat of the afternoon. At the rail station, he caught the train into London, and got off on the street where the Inn Dawn and her sister were staying was. It was a very nice, split-level, old-fashioned building, with no elevator. He walked up the short flight of stairs, and quickly found the door to the room she was in.

There were muffled voices coming from behind the door, as he raised his hand to knock.

"- ridiculous Xander. That's the _only_ way someone could have gotten them out of there," a female voice said quite adamantly.

As soon as he knocked, the talking inside abruptly stopped, as if a radio had been playing, and someone had suddenly switched it off. Then, there was a few muffled sounds - pairs of feet moving quickly - before the door finally swung open part-way, (just as he'd finished running a hand through his mussed hair one last time in an attempt to flatten it down), to reveal Dawn smiling up at him.

"Hey Harry! Ready to go?" she asked . . . almost a little too brightly.

Harry blinked. "Uh, yeh. Are you?"

"Yep! Let's -"

"Dawn? Aren't you going to invite him in?" a voice said from inside the room, using almost the same bright and sunny tone Dawn had.

Harry watched as Dawn's face contorted, and she rolled her eyes. "Do I have a choice?" she said in a sarcastic voice, as the door finally swung fully open to reveal a petite blond girl, also standing in the doorway next to Dawn.

From all Dawn had told him of her, Harry knew right away that the girl must be her sister, Buffy. She was fairer in appearance than Dawn was, with a peaches and cream complexion, (as opposed to Dawn's more rosey one), and hazel-green eyes. She was shorter than he was, even shorter than Dawn was. Yet, she seemed to radiated strength, and an air of being in charge, and knowing it.

She looked up at Dawn with a wry expression, and gave a small shrug. "Not really. You know I have to meet him. It's, like, written in the big-sister laws or something." She turned to face Harry, and stuck out her hand. "Hi. I'm Buffy. I'm sure Dawn's at least mentioned me, even if was just to complain to you about me," she said smiling with a sidelong glance at Dawn, who was now leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed.

Harry swallowed nervously, and took her outstretched hand. "Um, yeh Dawn's mentioned you a lot. Not that she's complaining about you a lot or anyth - I mean," Harry sighed. _Well_, this_ is going just great._ "I'm Harry. It's, uh, nice to meet you - Buffy."

Buffy just smiled back, clearly amused, as they shook hands. Then (not letting go of his hand), she turned to Dawn. "See? That wasn't so bad."

Dawn just eyed her unbelievingly, and said, "Oh, like you're _not_ going to make him come inside, so you can give him the third degree."

"No, _I'm not,"_ Buffy said firmly.

Then, suddenly, Harry found himself being yanked forward - quite strongly - into the room by the hand she had not released yet. "Xander and Willow will do that."

* * *

Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris were every bit as great as Harry had imagined them to be from the stories Dawn had told him of them. They both introduced themselves pleasantly and, even though Buffy had said they would be doing her big sister work of giving him the third degree, Harry didn't feel uncomfortable at all by any of the questions they asked, most of which were very general in nature. 

At any rate, it didn't feel like they were prying, or trying to be overly intimidating. And Xander was making a great show of over-acting like a stereotypical overly protective father, or older brother.

"So what is it you do - _Harry,_ is it?" Xander asked, leaning back in his seat, peering at Harry with one brown eye. (Dawn had mentioned that Xander had lost one of his eyes in an accident, though she hadn't elaborated on the details. His left eye socket was covered with what Harry thought was a wicked-cool eye patch.)

"Xander, he's sixteen. I can pretty much guess what he does," Buffy said in a deadpan.

Harry suppressed the snort of laughter that had bubbled up. "I, ah, I go to school." He glanced over at Dawn. "Boarding school actually."

"Which means he's there every day. Even weekends!" Dawn noted dryly.

"Dawn," Buffy said in a warning tone, and Harry saw the two sisters share an almost guarded glance with each other.

Xander was rubbing his chin, as if deep in thought. "School. School." He shook his head. "Can't say I think much of such places."

"That's 'cause we went to Sunnydale High Xander," Willow said, her tone indicating that that was all that needed to be said.

"True. True. The only thing I ever learned _there_ was to be afraid."

"Okay, are we done?" Dawn asked sarcastically, but Harry noted the warm and amused look she had on her face.

Buffy looked over at Willow, who had spent most of the time looking at Harry, her bright red hair framing her face, as if contemplating something. If anyone had asked him, he would have to admit that it was Willow, not Buffy or Xander, who was making him slightly nervous, with that rather intense look she was giving him.

As if she was trying to figure something out.

She looked at Buffy after a few beats and nodded, although rather slowly.

Taking that however she need to, Buffy gave a short nod to Dawn. "Yeah. We're done." She looked at Harry. "It was nice to meet'cha Harry."

Harry grinned. "You too." _Guess I passed - whatever it was I had to._

"Wait, what?" Xander said, sitting up in his seat, disappointment lining his face. "We're done? Oh, come on guys! I didn't even get to make the guy sweat yet. I've been practicing the 'Dawn's First Date Intimidation' thing since she was a kid, and I didn't get to use it before, because we didn't even know she was out the last two times, and now I've got the eye patch to work with it and - "

"Okay, well!" Dawn interrupted, turning Harry away from the others in the direction of the door. "The mock-inquisition was fun guys, but we've gotta go now!"

"Have fun. Nice meeting you Harry," Willow said with a wave.

"Nice to meet you too," Harry said over his shoulder as Dawn kept moving them in the direction of the door.

"Be careful," Buffy called after them. "You have the cell I gave you, right? Call me if you're going to be late. On second thought, don't _be_ late!"

"The-phone's-in-my-purse-don't-call-me-good-bye!" Dawn said hurriedly, as she closed the door.

Dawn's face was a scarlet red as she faced Harry, who had given up trying to hide his amusement. "Sorry about all that."

"About that?" Harry asked, gesturing back to the door, still chuckling. "Don't be. Really, I think they were great." Obviously, Xander and Willow weren't just friends with Dawn and her sister. They all acted more like family, which Harry admired . . . and slightly envied.

Dawn gave him a slightly embarrassed look. "I just don't want you to think I told them - I mean, I didn't. You know, what Xander said about this being - you know," she gestured awkwardly, not meeting his eye.

Harry paused, trying to decipher what she was talking about. Then it hit him, and he felt his face start to grow warm. "Oh. About it being a . . . a date?"

"Yeah. I mean, I know it's not. I don't want you to think _I_, I mean unless _you_ think it - but if you don't that's okay too, ya know? It doesn't have to be, is all I'm saying, but I'm not saying I _wouldn't_ like it if it was, and I'm being babble-girl, aren't I?"

There was an awkward pause as Dawn stopped babbling, and the both of them found themselves trying to focus on anything other than each other as they stood on the pavement.

Harry took a deep breath. Then, in a soft voice, he said, "I don't mind."

Dawn's eyes suddenly snapped to his. "You don't? I mean, I - I don't mind. Either. I don't mind either. "

Harry tried to keep the goofy grin that was threatening to explode across his face in check. _Maybe she _does_ fancy me._ "Okay."

"Okay," Dawn smiled, and they started down the street.

They walked along in a nice comfortable silence for a bit, Harry stealing little glances at her out of the corner of his eye and, after a bit, saw she was doing the same with him.

Presently, she spoke. "So, um. You go back to school in September, right?"

"Yeh, September 1st."

Dawn nodded. Then, after a short pause, she told him, "I got my acceptance letter yesterday."

"Acceptance letter?" he asked, and then remembered. "Oh. For school. In Italy."

"Yeah. St. Frances School for Girls. Buffy says she's going to find a apartment near there, so she can be close, and we can spend the holidays there if we want," she said in a voice that was obviously trying to sound happy, but her face kept betraying her real feelings about it to him.

Suddenly, she stopped on the pavement, and looked up at him, worry lining her pretty face.

"You'll write me, right? I'm leaving sometime in mid-August and . . . I'm not going to know anyone let alone speak their language, and . . . ." her voice trailed off, and she bit her bottom lip.

Harry didn't even need to think twice about. "I'll write you Dawn. Don't worry."

Dawn smiled at him, a look of shy gratefulness on her face. "And I'll write you back," she promised, reaching out and taking his hand. Harry felt pleasant little prickles of warmth suddenly run all through him at the contact, and he tried to exhale the air in his lungs, but he felt as if it were permanently caught in his throat.

"Come on," she said, still smiling shyly. "Let's go."

* * *

The concert was even more fun that Harry had hoped it would be. Amiee Mann was just as good as Dawn had raved to him she was, and Harry found himself really enjoying her style of music. 

He had worried, of course, about at some point having to ask Dawn to dance - seeing as he still didn't really know how. However, she'd taken the initiative there, as Harry was beginning to see was her style, and asked _him._ He had warned her that he hadn't ever danced much, but she hadn't cared, and Harry had just forced himself to relax as she rapped her arms around his shoulders and behind his neck, smiling up at him.

All through the concert, however, Harry couldn't help but think back to the last thing his Uncle had said before he'd left: _She'll probably pitch you anyway when she finds out what you are._

She'd be leaving in little more than a month. And, things being how they were, he didn't even know where _he_ would be come the Christmas Holidays, when they would both be off from school, let alone if they would be able visit each other.

And Harry had no idea how he would be able to write to her, as he'd promised. There was no way to use the Muggle Post from Hogwarts. Everything was done by Owl Post there, as well as in Hogsmead, the nearest village.

And Computers, and other digital equipment used to send electronic mail, didn't work at Hogwarts at all.

The only thing would be to send the letters by Owl Post to someone, who would then mail them using the Muggle Post. He knew, however, that the Dursleys would never consent to such a thing.

The even bigger problem, however, was - where he'd have to tell her to send _her_ letters. She would most definitely think it strange if he told her to send them to someone's house - like Hermione's, whose parents were both Muggles - and that they'd get the letters to him.

So, Harry had decided. As they were walking out of the club, and Dawn had noted that she was hungry, Harry suggested they go to The Leaky Cauldron.

"The Leaky Cauldron? What's that?"

"Oh, it's a pub. It's pretty nice, and they have pretty good food."

"Are we old enough to be let into a pub?"

"Oh, yeh. First time I went there I was eleven."

"Cool. Okay, let's go."

He knew he was pushing - though not _exactly_ breaking - the rules by doing this. The Leaky Cauldron was a Witches and Wizards pub. Not only that, but it was also the place that held an entrance to Diagon Alley, where Harry and his classmates went to every year to buy their new school supplies, as well as where all the Wizards and Witches in and around London went to shop.

However, because The Leaky Cauldron wasn't hidden - not the way Diagon Alley, or St. Mungo's Hospital was - on occasion, Muggles would sometimes stumble into it. Most who did, found themselves wanting to leave after only a few minutes, the whole pub giving off the feeling of being unordinary.

Muggles who witnessed something unordinary, knew nothing about the Wizarding world, and didn't handle what they had witnessed well, were usually given a memory-modifying potion to drink by Tom, the owner, and a few minutes later, happily went on their way, remembering nothing of what they may have seen.

Taking Dawn to the Leaky Cauldron was the only thing he could think of to gauge how she might react to the knowledge that a world of Magic actually existed without having to tell her that he was a Wizard _himself_.

At least not yet.

And if she reacted badly . . .

Well, he didn't think she would.

_I _hope_ she doesn't,_ Harry thought as they walked along, and tried to ease his mind by imagining Dawn reacting in surprise and delight at learning what he was, as they made the turn onto Charing Cross Road.

"Nice neighborhood," Dawn noted wryly as they walked down the road. The street was dark and damp, and the buildings all looked even shabbier than they usually did.

Harry smiled. "It's really not as bad as it looks."

"Really, huh? Well then I'd hate to see the place around here that _is_ as bad as it looks."

The cheeky reply Harry was about to make was cut off as she suddenly felt someone grab his arm from behind, and almost yanking him off the pavement.

Next to him, Dawn screamed, and began to struggle against their unknown attacker as well. "Let _go_ of me!" she shrieked.

Before Harry knew what was happening, or could grab his wand from out of his back pocket, the person pulled him into an alleyway, Dawn pulled in right next to him. Harry twisted and turned, struggling against whomever it was, trying to see who their attacker was, but couldn't see anything as whatever it was tried to pull them further into the alley, behind a dumpster and among some old, broken crates.

"Who are you? LET US GO!"

"'S'okay Harry! S'okay, it's just me," a familiar voice said, as Harry felt his arm finally being released. Dawn, having also been let go of, backed up next to Harry as the figure suddenly became visible, right before their eyes, as if out of thin air.

"Mr. Fletcher?"

It was indeed Mundungus Fletcher, the man who had been Harry's bodyguard last summer, and a member of the Order of the Phoenix. The same strong smell of tobacco that was always with him filled the air as he came forward, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Harry and Dawn in evident worry. He hastily folded up his invisibility cloak, and tucked under one arm.

"What - what are you doing here?" Harry asked, more than slightly annoyed. "Are you guarding me again?" He had looked around for the man a few times since returning to Privet Drive for the summer, but hadn't seen either him or Mrs. Figg about anywhere.

"No. If I 'ad, you and the girl wouldn't be 'ere, of _all_ places, right now," Mundungus said, shaking his head.

"What are you talking about?"

"What are you _both_ talking about? What's going on?" Dawn asked, angrily. "You _know_ this guy?" she asked, rounding on Harry. "Who is he?"

Any reply Harry could have given her was cut off by the sound of a loud crashing sound coming from the direction of the street.

"What -!" Harry exclaimed in confusion, and he and Dawn both turned and hurried back to the entrance of the alley to look out on the street, just as loud shouts and screams began to cut through the air.

The sight on Charing Cross Road, where he and Dawn had been standing only a few moments before, made Harry gape in shock.

The front door of the Leaky Cauldron was nothing more than a hole now and poring through it, were large green skinned creatures with horns that Harry had never seen before in his life. Along with the creatures, over dozens of Witches and Wizards ran out of the now destroyed doorway, obviously trying to get away from the creatures. Some Disapparated on the spot. Those that couldn't for one reason or another, tried to run. The creatures, demonic not only in size, but also apparently strength, were stopping them, and appeared to be having great fun in doing so. One grabbed a nearby Wizard and threw the man all the way to the other side of the street.

"Blimey! _T'is_ true then," Mundungus said grimly behind them.

"What's true? What _are_ those things?" Harry asked in shock.

Dawn made as if she were going to speak, but Mundungus cut her off. "Both you, stay 'ere, 'idden, understand me?" he said urgently, pulling them both back away from the street entrance again. "Don't know if any Order members on their way 'ere or not, and I've gotta check. There's no way to get you outta 'ere safe now."

Harry and Dawn glanced at each other, and Harry was surprised to see that Dawn didn't even look really afraid or shocked by what she'd just seen. "We have to _do_ something!" she said firmly.

"We can't just hide!" Harry said in agreement.

"You're not to do _anything!_" Mundungus said firmly. "Those are _demons_ you two -"

"I know what kind they are!" Dawn exclaimed, sounding frustrated.

"- and we need people 'ere who knows 'ow to deal with such things. _Stay 'idden_."

And then, with that final warning and a loud _crack!_ he was gone.

"Okay, I've never seen magic like _that_ before," Dawn said after a pause, staring at the place where Mundungus had just been standing. She crossed her arms and eyed Harry. "How do you know someone like that?"

"I -," Harry started to reply, then caught not only what she had just said, be also remembered what she'd said before - about knowing the creatures were demons.

"Wait. How do _you_ know what kind of demons those things are?" he asked, eyeing her back.

A cacophony of loud cracking sounds - like the one that had accompanied Mundungus when he'd Disapparated - coming from the street interrupted Dawn's reply, and the two - forgetting the warning they'd been given - rushed back to the alley entrance. Some people who were wearing official looking robes were now on the street, battling the demons as best they could, curses and hexes flying left and right. Some seemed to work. Many, however, seemed to have no effect on the demons at all.

"Yep. _Definitely_ never seen magic like this before."

Hearing a beeping sound, Harry turn and saw that Dawn had taken out a cell phone.

"What are you doing?"

She held up a hand, quieting him, her face pale but determined.

"Buffy?" Dawn said into the phone. "Harry and I are near this pub or something, in London? And there are a whole group of M'Fashnik demons attacking all of these people, who I think have magic wands or something, on the street in front of it. So I'm going to be a bit late getting back to the Inn tonight, okay?"

Harry stared at her open-mouthed. "Mmm-_what_ demons?"

"DEATH EATERS!" someone on the street shouted, and Harry whipped his head back around to see another wave of people come out of the Leaky Cauldron - this time wearing dark robes and hoods that covered part of their faces. Using the demons as cover, curses and counter curses began being exchanged back and forth with whom Harry now assumed to be Ministry of Magic Aurors.

"Um, Buffy? Some really scary looking guys in black robes have just shown up, and judging by what they're doing, they don't really seem to be on the 'white-hat' side, either." Dawn said into the phone, her large blue eyes growing even rounder.

"They're Death Eaters," Harry told her.

"You know _them_ too?" Dawn asked incredulously.

"Unfortunately."

Dawn lifted her cell phone to speak to her sister again, but then abruptly stopped. "Uh, Harry? I'm guessing with a name like 'Death Eaters,' they wouldn't give us puppies if they saw us here, right?"

Harry blinked at her, unbelievingly. "No, they'd just curse us. Or kill us."

Dawn nodded, her eyes impossibly large, her gaze fixed on something. "Then we should get out of here, because I think we've just been spotted."

* * *

To all the British readers out there, I am trying really hard to make sure Harry, and everyone else who's British, actually _sound_ British. If anything sounds completely off, however, I'm sorry. I'm an American girl, living in Southern California no less, so writing Dawn, Buffy and the Scoobies is, naturally, slightly easier for me to do. ;) 

Now for the feedback replies:

**madskillzpro:** thank you and yes, I do plan to keep it up. As is, I've got the whole story finished in extensive outline format, and are now being written full out.

**Ringo's Wildrose:** Yes, I've started it! It's so nice that you remembered me and the comment I made. (And, again, let me say I'm still really loving Dumbledore

Army!)

**phoenix83ad:** Resurrecting of dead characters is my #1 pet-peeve wrt a lot of fanfic. (Hey, I miss Sirius too, but . . .) Also, no need to worry, Buffy is not going to be getting a wand. I have my own personal theory about how wand magic works, and the criteria needed to actually be able to use one - but that's for a later chapter. Don't want to give anything away! ;-)

**spike10101:** Thank you, and I'm working on the next two parts right now. I'm determined to finish the whole story before "Half-Blood Prince" is released; since I'm sure that book will render the whole storyline I'm doing here completely A/U. :)

**Makura Koneko:** thank you for the comments and the constructive criticism. I'm glad to hear I've gotten the characterization pretty good - that was one thing I was really worried about, especially wrt Harry, since I'm relatively new to HP fandom. (I just finally read books 1 through 5 only a few months ago).

**Queenofwitches:** I'm glad to hear you think the story is addicting! Thank you so much. (And as you know by know, having I hope now read chapter two, the Harry and the phone thing did have a purpose. ;D )

Up Next - Chapter Three: Skirmishes


	3. Skirmishes

**Author's Note:** I've nicknamed this part "The Exposition Chapter." Because it's long, involved, gives the reader a bunch of info about people they already know but some of the characters don't, and the end of the second half of it is basically "a bunch of people standing around talking."

Not to mention also having to move the story along while it does all of the above too.

You know how I said Chapter Two was harder to write than Chapter One? Well, this was worse than both of those.

I'm never going to get this whole story finished before _Half-Blood Prince_ renders it completely AU, but :shrug:. I guess I'll just have to adjust. :D

Again, all replies to feedback, and any credit notes that need to be given, are at the end of the chapter.

Final Note: This chapter has been slightly edited to fix a few grammar mistakes. I now have a beta reader (two of them!), so no one should have to suffer any of my grammar slip-ups anymore. :D

* * *

**Chapter Three: Skirmishes**

"'In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.'

Such is the calling of the mystical being known as The Vampire Slayer. Where she is, how she came to be, how each slayer is chosen, still remains a mystery. A mystery closely guarded by The Council of Watchers, keepers of all the histories and legacies regarding the Chosen One . . . ."

_-- from Defense Against The Dark Arts, Year Three Textbook_

Harry felt his stomach clench and drop as he turned around, and looked in the direction where Dawn was staring. His eyes locked on the two hooded figures that were now directly facing them, as he and Dawn stood, exposed, in the entrance of the alley.

One of the Death Eater had lifted his wand, pointing it directly at them.

Harry didn't stop to think. He grabbed Dawn, and threw them both down onto the ground, just missing the trail of green light that whizzed right over them, and exploded against a stack of crates as it connected with them; knocking the crates over with a loud crash.

Dawn, having had no prior warning about what Harry was going to do, hadn't been holding on tight enough to her cell phone. The small electronic device went flying out her hand at high force as Harry knocked her to the ground, breaking into a few pieces as it hit the pavement.

Harry snatched out his wand from his back pocket and, grabbing Dawn by one arm, stood back up as fast as he could, pulling her along. The only thing on his mind was getting Dawn away from there any way that he could, and keeping her safe. She was a Muggle. If any of the Death Eaters got her, he didn't even want to think what they would do to her. Images of what had happened to the Muggle Mr. Roberts and his family during the Quidditch World Cup event two years ago flashed through his mind; Voldemort followers levitating the entire family in mid air and moving them around in a grotesque fashion, treating them as if they were nothing more than amusing puppets.

He had a feeling that what the Death Eaters would do to her, now that Voldemort had risen again, would be substantially worse than that.

"We have to go!" Harry said urgently, pulling her to her feet.

She glanced for a second at the wand in his hand, but she didn't argue. They both ran as fast as they could down the alley, even as they could hear the Death Eaters quickly approaching. Glancing behind them, Harry saw the form of the Death Eaters standing just inside the entrance to the alley, their wands both raised.

"What do we do?" Dawn panted as they ran, clearly panicked.

"Down!" Harry shouted, again grabbing her, but this time pulling her to the ground against the wall on the left side of the alley. He hid them behind one of the many stacks of old wooden crates that were pilled high in the place, and they both crouched down, ducking their heads just as both spells connected with the crates. Dawn screamed as debris of wood, splinters and hot embers rained down on them, as the crates exploded.

Coughing, Harry leapt up and shouted, "STUPEFY!" pointing his wand back at the mouth of the alley where the two Death Eaters were. One of them was hit square in the chest with the red bolt from Harry's wand, and flew backwards with great force when it connected. Harry didn't waste time bothering to see where the Death Eater landed, but pulled Dawn up from where she was still crouched, and they continued running down the alley as fast as they could.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and Harry turned to see a large group of highly stacked crates Dawn had deliberately toppled over as she'd been running - and directly into the path of the other Death Eater. The Death Eater hadn't been expecting what she'd just done, and was now being hit with most of them as they fell to the ground.

Harry knew that it would only delay the Death Eater for a few moments, however, as he and Dawn reached the back wall of the alley. There, the path forked. To the right lay a visible dead end. To the left, the alley extended further behind the other buildings that faced Charing Cross Road.

Behind them, Harry could hear the feet of the other Death Eater, refusing to give up his chase of them, despite the small obstacle Dawn had knocked in his way. The noises coming of the battle still happening on Charing Cross Road were not becoming any quieter, as shouts and screams seem to continue coming from the main road almost relentlessly.

There was no way they could outrun the Death Eater forever in the alley. And leaving the alley wasn't any better of an option either.

Dawn began to head in the direction of the left fork, but Harry pulled her the other way - towards the right one.

"What?" Dawn gasped. "But that way's a dead end!"

Harry didn't answer her, but quickly surveyed their surroundings as he pulled her in the alley. There was a large dumpster along one wall, next to more crates, and some old wooden planks with rusty nails still stuck in some of them near the front. There were more boxes and crates stacked near the back, slightly hidden by shadows and darkness.

"Get down," Harry told Dawn, pushing her behind the nearby dumpster and wooden planks. "Hide here. And if anything goes wrong, don't wait, just run!"

"What -!" Dawn started to argue, but Harry didn't bother being patient with her. There was no time for that.

"Dawn, hide! Trust me!" he said urgently, slightly snapping at her.

Her eyes narrowed slightly but she did as he'd asked, and ducked down behind the dumpster and planks, just as Harry heard the Death Eater approaching. He ran and hid himself in the shadows towards the back of the alley behind a few crates, just as the Death Eater finally appeared. From what Harry could see of him now, he had a very muscular build as he turned and slowly headed into the alley where they were.

"Come out, both of you," the Death Eater said in a low voice. "I know you're in here."

He took a few more steps further into the alley, just a few yards away from where Dawn was hiding. If he headed over to look around the dumpster right across from him, he would see her.

"There's no point in hiding," the Death Eater said again, evenly. "Now, come out like good little children, and I promise not to hurt -" he was starting to head over to the dumpster where Dawn was hiding.

Harry pointed his wand over at a box directly across from where he was hiding, and whispered the _mobilus_ charm.

The wooden box fell to the ground with a loud _clunk_.

Immediately, the Death Eater's snapped head up, his attention drawn away from where Dawn was still hiding, to further back in the alley where Harry was - just as Harry had planned.

Now, if the rest of his plan went wrong in any way, she'd at least have some chance to escape.

_Just a little closer,_ Harry thought as the Death Eater did just that, heading directly to where the fallen box was laying.

Pointing his wand directly at the back of the Death Eater, Harry yelled "STUPEFY!" as he jumped out of hiding, knocking some of the crates over as he did.

The Death Eater spun around, wand raised, but he wasn't fast enough. The red light struck him square in the chest, and he crumpled to the ground, out cold.

Harry exhaled the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, as he looked down at the Death Eater. He glanced over to where Dawn was still hiding, crouched down, peeking out from between the wooden planks. He looked back down at the man on the ground before him. The dark hood he was wearing still covered most of his face. His eyes were visible, though now closed.

Harry had thought he'd recognized the voice when the man had spoken, but he hadn't been sure.

But he could find out.

Keeping his wand on the unconscious form below him, Harry stooped down over him and reached down to pull off the Death Eater's hood -

_"Expelliarmus!"_

Harry spun quickly as he heard the words - just as his wand went flying out of his hand.

Standing at the entrance was - Harry knew it was - the other Death Eater, the first one he'd knocked out near the alley entrance to Charing Cross Road. He'd either been quickly revived by his companion - Harry having been too busy running to notice - or he had just finally come to.

Harry's eyes flew to Dawn's hiding place. She was still hiding, though Harry could just make out her blue eyes between the planks, now wide with fear. He quickly glanced back at the Death Eater, who was now steadily coming towards him, taking no notice of Dawn's hiding place - his attention was focused on Harry before him.

"Well. It looks as if I've caught a wonderful prize," the Death Eater sneered in an oily voice. "If it isn't Potter himself. The Dark Lord will be most pleased when I bring you to him, along with the other things he requested tonight."

Harry was trapped. He knew it. His wand was in reach, slightly behind him on the right, but laying on the ground. There was no way he could try to pick it up without being noticed. The only thing he could think of was trying to get the Death Eater out of the alley with him as soon as possible, so Dawn wouldn't be discovered. Images of what had happened to Cedric Diggory when he's been transported to the graveyard along with Harry during the night of Voldemort's resurrection flashed through his mind:

_"Kill the spare" . . . Diggory laying on the grass . . . his gray eyes fixed, dead . . . ._

He wouldn't let that happen to her. Would _not_ let that happen to Dawn -

Who, apparently, had decided to give up her hiding place and was now, as quietly as a cat, moving out from behind it.

_What the bloody hell does she think she's doing?_ Harry thought in total panic, trying desperately to keep his eyes off of her and on the Death Eater so the man wouldn't notice her.

As Dawn moved further out, Harry noticed she was holding one of the old, thick wooden planks in her hands.

"Going to take me to Voldemort then? What are you all doing attacking the Leaky Cauldron anyway?" Harry asked quickly, taking a slight step back as he did so. Dawn was still moving very cautiously and quietly. If he could just keep the Death Eater's attention on him . . . .

The Death Eater laughed snidely. "Oh, we weren't attacking the pub. That was just the most convenient way out of Diagon Alley. And it gave the demons a chance for a little fun," he said, his tone one of sinister amusement.

Dawn was now only about a yard away, the plank raised in her hands like a very large bat.

"Diagon Alley? What were you doing _there_ then?" _Keep him talking, keep him on you . . . ._

The Death Eater laughed again, just as Dawn turned slightly to give the swing she was about to deliver as much force as she could -

And one of her feet scuffled on the ground as she finally began to swing.

The laugh of the Death Eater cut off abruptly as he spun around, wand still raised, and shouted _"Petrificus Totalus!"_ just as Dawn finished swinging her makeshift bat directly at the Death Eater's head.

They both connected.

The plank hit the Death Eater square on the side of the head, just as Dawn's limbs completely locked up and she began to fall backwards.

Harry hadn't wasted any time either. When the Death Eater had turned away from him, he immediately dove for his wand, scooped it up and shouted _"Stupefy!"_ just as Dawn hit the ground.

The second Death Eater, who was still holding the left side of his head where Dawn's very strong blow had hit him, crumpled to the ground next to her, out cold.

"Dawn!" Harry exclaimed, though he knew she couldn't answer him. He rushed over to where she was laying on the ground - eyes still open - and completely stiff as a board.

Even though Harry knew she wasn't dead, the fact that she almost looked as if she was made his heart skip a beat in fear.

"Don't worry Dawn. I'll get you back alright," he said quietly, lifting her up off the ground in one of his arms. He pointed his wand at her with his free hand and said the reversal spell. Her body immediately relaxed, and she let out a huge breath of air.

"Oh, I hate being frozen stiff," she sighed. Then she smiled up at him, gratefully. "At least you didn't just stick a remote in my hand and leave me here though," she noted.

He had no idea what she was talking about, and decided it was best to just ignore it. "Are you okay?" he asked, still slightly worried.

She sat up and rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, if you don't count slightly hitting my head as I fell, and the few splinters I got from that wooden board, I'm just peachy," she said with mock-joy. Then, turning more serious, she asked, "What the hell _was_ that?"

"Full Body Binding spell," Harry told her as he helped her to her feet. "It's pretty harmless in the long run. You should be okay now," he added - more to himself than to her.

Dawn didn't say anything for a moment, just looked at him and again glanced at the wand in his hand. The, she looked over at the two Death Eaters who were both still out cold.

"So what do we do with them?" she asked, nodding at the bodies. "I mean, they're still alive, right?"

"Yes," Harry said with a slight frown - then shook his head. How would _she_ know that a _Stupefy_ curse couldn't kill someone?

"So what do we do? Just leave them here?"

Harry thought for a second. "We should probably keep them here and let an Auror know where they are," he decided.

"Okay. What's an Auror?"

"They're people who catch witches and wizards who are into the Dark Arts - like them," he told her, noting the unconscious Death Eaters.

"So - they're sort of like cops? For dark magic?" she asked, curiously.

"Yeh. You could say that."

Harry walked over to the unconscious forms and, pointing his wand at each in succession, put a full body bind on each of them. "That should hold them until we can get someone," he said. "Come on."

* * *

The alley was quiet. 

Charing Cross Road, however, wasn't. Not completely. Harry could still hear some commotion coming from the street, as he and Dawn walked, ever cautiously, back down the long alley. Dawn was still clutching the wooden plank she had whacked the Death Eater with in on hand.

"I though you said that thing gave you splinters," Harry said in a quiet voice. They'd both thought it best to speak in low voices as well, just in case.

Dawn shrugged. "You've got a weapon," she noted with a nod at his wand. "I need something. And it came in pretty handy, splinters or no."

He glanced at the thick plank she was holding with an air of confidence. She had really come through against that Death Eater, but -

"Dawn, listen. If any more Death Eaters come at us again, I think you should -"

"No," Dawn said firmly, cutting him off, guessing what he was about to say. She stopped walking and pulled him around by the arm to face her. "Listen Harry, I may not be able to make with the magic like you can, but I'm not gonna go hide out, or run away if you're in trouble, or risking your neck for . . . ."

She didn't have to finish. He knew she was about to say _for me_.

She gave him a quiet grin. "I've got your back, okay?"

Harry blinked. He was very grateful for what she'd just said, but -

"I just don't want you to get hurt," he murmured.

"And the best way to avoid _either_ of us getting hurt is if we stick together," she declared with a short nod.

Harry didn't say anything. He knew his face was betraying how much he didn't like this, but Dawn - for whatever reason - chose to ignore it. "Come on," she said, heading down the alley again, ahead of him. "Let's find some of those Auror guys before -"

And, as if she had given some sort of ironic cue, at that moment a green skinned demon burst into the alley, going right for them, and Dawn screamed in alarm.

It was one of the demons from before, the one Dawn identified by name. Harry quickly lifted his wand, but had no idea what spell would work on such a thing. Dawn ducked as it came at her and she whacked it with her board -

Which broke like thousands of little splinters against it, not harming the demon in the slightest.

The demon, more than angry, turned back to make a grab at her.

Harry, closer to her than the demon was, pushed her out the way. Wand still raised, he began to say, _"Stupe-!"_ when the demon, in one movement knocked the wand from his hand and grabbed him, turning Harry around, his neck now trapped under the demon's huge and thick left arm.

Harry's hands flew up and grabbed at the arm that was locked around him, struggling, trying to pull the demon off of him.

"Well, looks as if I caught myself a wee little wizard!" the demon chuckled with glee. Harry was too busy trying to break free to register any shock that it could speak.

"LET HIM GO!" Harry heard Dawn scream. She hadn't run, but was still there, a few yards away, her face flushed, scared but angry.

The demon just sneered at her, and began to move towards her.

Quickly, Dawn stooped down, scooped up Harry's wand where he'd dropped it, and quickly straightened back up, facing them. For a moment, Harry though he saw a bright green light receding in her eyes as she stood, pointing his wand at the demon's chest. The next instant however, it was gone and only fearful but angry blue orbs confronted the monster holding him.

_"Let him go!"_ she demanded again, stabbing the wand in the direction of the demon for emphasis, as a threat.

The demon laughed, and tightened its grip on Harry, causing him to gasp at the pain of it. The demon was holding him so tightly now, he could only struggle feebly against the hold it had on him. He was trapped.

"What do you think you're going to do to me with _that_, little girl?" the demon asked with a sneer.

"Let go of him or I - I'll, I'll _curse_ you!" Dawn exclaimed, trying to control the tremble in her voice.

The demon laughed again, as if she'd just told him the funniest joke he'd ever heard, and Harry began to gasp deeper as the demon tightened its arm around his neck even more. He was having trouble breathing.

The thought hit his mind like a sledgehammer that the demon was choking him to death.

"Alright little girl!" the demon said, patronizingly. "_One_ chance now. Remember, the boy here is counting on you," he said, giving Harry a rough shake, and stroking his hair as if he were nothing more than a cat tucked under its arm. Harry gave a slight shudder at the feel of that hand on his head, knowing the demon could probably take a good hold and snap his neck, if it so wished to.

"Come on little girl. Show me what you can do!" The demon laughed again in that same sneering way. Harry's eyes glanced to Dawn, and the two of them locked gazes for a moment. She was looking at him desperately as sweat now began to trickle down his brow.

All Harry could think was that if the pain around his neck became anymore intense, he would pass out from it, if not from the lack of air.

Before they were both killed.

Because he knew what Dawn was about to try to do wasn't going to work.

_Ron. Hermione. I'll never see them again. Dawn, I'm so sorry. . . ._

The look in Dawn's eyes changed from desperation to angry determination, her face remaining as steely as she could make it as she raised Harry's wand. . .

. . . and, as she brought it down with a sharp slash through the air and yelled, "STUPIDFIE!" it seemed to Harry as if, at that moment, everything happened all at once.

* * *

Not only had Dawn said the spell incorrectly, she'd also waved the wand incorrectly to properly perform it. 

However, even if she had done both things right, Harry had known it wouldn't have worked anyway. He'd known the demon had been right to doubt that Dawn could do anything to it.

Wands didn't work unless the person had the ability for magic inside of them in the first place. As Hermione had told him once, it was something a person was born with. A special magical power that ran though a person, (down to their own blood), and that power was channeled though the wand.

Being able to do magic was almost like walking or breathing for a person who was a Witch or Wizard. It came naturally. There was no magical power that ran though Dawn - or any Muggle - that could be channeled through a wand. Wands were as useless to a Muggle a waving a stick from a tree around, and expecting something to happen.

So Harry was more than just shocked when he suddenly heard a _thump_! and the demon abruptly stopped laughing. It stiffened up, its grip on Harry loosening, then finally releasing him, causing Harry to fall to the ground, gasping.

Above him, Dawn was now staring at the demon, wide-eyed in surprise.

He was free . . . and he was still alive.

They _both_ were.

Harry took in huge gulps of air, his neck still on fire in pain where the demon had held him like a vice. "It _worked_?" he asked panting, (more to himself than to her), completely gobsmacked.

He got to his feet as quickly as he could, looking back at the demon as he moved away from it, and stood over next to Dawn.

And then, he saw it.

A large arrow was going through the demon's back, and sticking out of its chest.

Dawn glanced at Harry. "It . . . does that spell to do that?" she asked, confused.

The green beast stumbled forward towards them only a step or two, before it gave a final groan, and collapsed to the ground - dead.

"Sorry we're a little late Dawn. I believe you called for some assistance?" a voice said.

Harry looked up, past where the demon had fallen, to see an older looking gentleman with an intelligent face and glasses who was lowering a large crossbow standing just a few yards behind where the demon had been.

Next to him stood Willow Rosenberg.

"Giles! Willow!" Dawn exclaimed. Stepping around the now dead demon, she rushed over to Willow and the older man.

Harry followed her over to them, and Willow gave Dawn a quick hug when she reached their side. "You okay there Dawnie?" Willow asked.

"Are you alright?" The man Dawn had called Giles asked, his voice distinctively British. He didn't hug Dawn as Willow had done, but he looked her over now with obvious concern.

Dawn nodded. "I'm fine."

Willow turned to Harry. "Are _you_ okay?" she asked him, placing a worried hand on his arm. "That guy was holding you pretty tightly it looked like," she said with a nod over to the green-skinned body just a few yards away.

Harry rubbed his neck. It still felt very bruised, but the pain was _much_ less than it had been before, when the demon had had him. "I'll be okay - I think."

"What's that?" Willow asked, noting Harry's wand, which Dawn was still holding in her hand.

Dawn looked at it. "Oh, it's Harry's," she said, and handed it back over to him.

"Is that what I think it is?" Giles asked, peering at the object, and then looking back at Harry with a strange look in his eyes.

Harry paused. True, Willow and this Giles person had just saved his life, and they obviously knew what demons were, like Dawn did . . . but _why_ did they know such things? And, more importantly, _how_?

_And how did they know exactly where we were?_ he also wondered, knowing Dawn hadn't had time to give her sister directions of any sort before her cell phone had smashed.

"Uh - ," Harry hesitated.

Dawn, with a glance at him and a slight roll of her eyes, said, "It's _okay_ Harry. You can trust them." She turned back to her friends, obvious excitement bubbling up. "It's a magic wand. Harry used it against these two scary guys in tacky black hoods that were after us, who also had wands, and he totally took them both down!"

"Did he?" Giles asked, now frowning down at him in a way that made Harry more than a little apprehensive.

"Uh, Dawn helped," Harry told them, refusing to take all the credit. "You should have seen the way she hit one of the Death Eaters with that wooden plank."

Dawn grinned, obviously proud of the part - however small - she'd played. "Yeah. I did kind-of have his back," she noted saucily.

Willow was still back on the first bit of news Dawn had given them. "A _wand_? You can do magic?" she asked, but didn't wait for a reply as she exclaimed, "I _knew_ I sensed something from you!" She gave a nod of pleasure at having obviously guessed correctly.

Harry just blinked at her, growing even more confused than he had been. All he _did_ know was that this night had gone far beyond simply taking Dawn to the Leaky Cauldron to gauge her reaction to the idea of their maybe being unusual things and people in the world. He'd had no intention, however, of fully telling her what he was. He'd just wanted to know if Dawn might, in his Uncle's words, "pitch him" or not when he _could_ finally tell her. (Whenever_ that_ would have been).

And now, here he was, standing with Dawn and two other Muggles who now not only knew pretty much what he was, but oddly, weren't even unbelieving, or that overwhelmingly shocked about it.

If Fudge didn't lock him up in Azkaban and throw away the key - or at least expel him from Hogwarts - it would be a miracle.

Dawn looked around. "Where's Buffy?" she asked.

"Oh, she's taking care of the rest of those M'Fashnik guys. She told us to come and find you. This way, Xander's with her," Willow noted, turning and heading out of the alley at a quickened pace.

"Taking care of them?" Harry asked Dawn, as he ran up beside her, following Willow and Giles out of the alley.

Dawn just gave him a look as they hurried along, and said in a knowing-but-dry voice, "You'll see."

* * *

Charing Cross Road looked like a war zone in its aftermath. Almost the whole front wall of the Leaky Cauldron was now destroyed and, from what Harry could see inside the pub though it's demolished outer wall, the inside didn't look any better. The shops around the pub and across from it had windows and doors broken, and there was an overturned and half crushed car in the middle of the road. 

The Death Eaters had all finally Disapparated, but there were still Aurors on the street, some still battling the remaining demons. Although the demons now all looked as if they were trying to find a way to flee any way they could, instead of trying to cause any more havoc.

Some of the remaining Aurors were helping their wounded comrades, while others were staring in disbelief at the same sight that Harry was; the sight of the small blonde girl Harry knew to be Dawn's older sister Buffy Summers, skillfully pummeling three of the remaining demons . . . all by herself.

As he watched the petite blonde girl spin, kick and punch with speed, grace and skill he'd never witnessed in anyone before, Harry began to realize that maybe Dawn and her friends weren't just simply Muggles, as he'd thought they were.

Harry continued to watch in amazement as Xander threw what looked like a wicked cool ax type weapon - with what looked to be a wooden point at one end - over to Buffy, who caught it without looking and beheaded the last demon with it, all in one fluid motion.

"Buffy! Xander! We found them!" Willow called out to her friends, getting their attention.

"Dawn!" Buffy exclaimed as she caught sight of her younger sister. Weapon still in hand, she rushed over to where Dawn stood next to Harry and gave her a huge, enveloping hug. "Are you alright?" Buffy asked, pulling back a little to look at Dawn.

"Yeah, I'm okay" Dawn nodded.

"You sure?"

"I'm _fine_ Buffy. Really. Just a few scratches and splinters, that's all."

Buffy gave her a small grin as she released her. A grin which disappeared as quickly as it had come as she turned to Harry, and the look she gave him was as far away from pleasant as one could get. Harry suddenly felt just as he did when he'd first realized that they'd been spotted by the Death Eaters earlier.

"Okay. Give me _one_ good reason why I shouldn't break your neck. And when I say one, I mean you better tell me with the first thing that comes out of your mouth, or else," she said in a deadly tone, one that told him she wasn't kidding in the slightest either.

"I second that threat of death," Xander said, coming up behind Buffy, another very large crossbow - like the type Mr. Giles was still holding - slung over one of his shoulders.

Before Harry could say anything, Willow jumped in. "Guys, I don't think Harry had anything to do with Dawn being in danger. At least, from the way that M'Fashink guy was chocking him when we showed up, I don't think so."

"And he saved my life too, Buffy. More than once," Dawn added.

Buffy was still glaring at him, and although it was a little less intense than before, Harry suddenly felt angry and defensive because of her look. "I didn't know this was going to happen when I brought Dawn here!" he said in frustration; refusing to let his gaze falter under hers, no matter how intimidating she was being. "Honestly!"

Buffy folded her arms. "What's with the magic stick then?"

Harry blinked at her. "What?"

She sighed, exasperated. "_That!_" she said, pointing at his wand, which he was still holding in his right hand.

Before Harry or anyone else could answer her, a deep male voice called out from behind them.

"Harry! _There_ you are!"

"Are you alright?" another voice, female this time, asked.

Harry turned and smiled ruefully as the form of Aurors - and Order of the Phoenix members - Nymphadora Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt rushed over to where they were all standing.

"Hey Kingsley. Tonks," Harry said, putting his wand back in his back pocket as they approached, relief clearly visible on both of their faces. Tonks' appearance was relatively tame for a change - though her hair was blonde with distinctive pink steaks running through it. "Fletcher find you?" he asked as they came up.

"Yes he did," Kingsley said. "We couldn't believe it when he told us you were here and what was happening."

"I think Lupin and Moody were ready to hang him when he'd said he'd left you here all alone, too," Tonks added as she visibly checked him over to make sure he was all right.

"Oh, he wasn't alone," Dawn's voice spoke up, and Harry watched as Kingsley and Tonks finally seemed to notice the group of people Harry was standing with.

And that, for the most part, they all appeared to be Muggles.

"Uh - heh. Cause, you know, I was there too," Dawn finished, and gave a slight wave to indicate herself. "Hi."

Tonks actually began to return Dawn's small wave of hello, then shook her head. "Um, Harry? Who -?"

"We were just about to ask Harry here the same thing about all of _you_ guys," Buffy noted, her arms still folded, weapon still in hand. "And the deal with all the magic sticks he and everyone else around here seem to have."

"You," Kingsley said, peering closer at Buffy and the weapon she was holding. "I saw you. You were the one fighting those demons, all by yourself."

Tonks, however, wasn't taking much notice of Buffy herself, but more of what Buffy'd just said. She rounded on Harry, a look of utter disbelief on her face. "Harry Potter! Don't tell me you actually brought Muggles -!"

At this point, Giles spoke up, cutting everyone off.

"They're Wand Wielders," he said, answering Buffy's question.

Everyone, including Harry, Kingsley and Tonks, turned and looked at Giles in surprise. "_What_ wielders?" Xander said, asking the question he and his friends were obviously thinking.

"Wand Wielders," Giles said evenly. "It's a term used to describe a person born with innate magical power and ability, that is then, uh, channeled out through a conduit with a magical substance in its core - or, uh, wand."

"Oh!" Willow said with excitement. "So you're saying they're _born_ with magic in them?"

"Precisely."

"Wow. That's so cool," Dawn noted, looking at Harry.

Harry, Kingsley and Tonks, however, were still staring at Giles. Kingsley and Tonks looked none to pleased by what Giles had just informed Buffy and the others of, and Harry saw Kingsley, discreetly as he could make it, pull out his wand from his robes, his gaze fixed now on Giles.

"How do you know this?" Kingsley asked evenly. "You don't look like a wizard."

Giles had taken off his glasses and placed them in his pocked. "That's because I'm not. A wizard I mean," Giles replied, just as evenly. He held out his hand to the tall black wizard across from him. "Rupert Giles - Head of the International Watcher's Council."

Kingsley took the offered hand with great astonishment. "_The_ Watcher's Council? Really!"

Harry though he'd heard the name before somewhere, but couldn't remember where. "The Watcher's Council?" he asked.

"They're the ones who watch over The Vampire Slayer," Tonks said with that same note of astonishment that Kingsley had. "The guardians of the entire legacy."

Now Harry remembered where he'd heard about the Watcher's Council. "Oh, yeh. I read about them, and the slayer, in my Defense Against the Dark Arts class a few years ago." Harry's gaze slid from Giles over to Buffy, widening as everything he'd just watched her do began clicking into place.

It had for Kingsley as well, as he looked at Buffy with even more astonishment. "So you're -"

Buffy grinned and gave a bow. "One Vampire Slayer - protecting the world on a nightly basis."

"Amazing," Tonks said with a shake of her head, as if she couldn't quite believe it. "I don't believe _anyone_ in our world has ever had the fortune to meet a Vampire Slayer before."

"There are some who even argue - and have for decades - that you don't exist, and the Watcher's Council made you up for one reason or another," Kingsley told Buffy.

"Really?" Buffy asked, smiling wider. "So I'm like, mythic?"

Harry saw Dawn roll her eyes.

By now, a few other Aurors, who were unhurt and had also witnessed Buffy's skill fighting the last of the demons, had come over and heard most of what had just been revealed. They were also registering the same surprise and astonishment at the news about who she was that Tonks and Kingsley were, and were now buzzing with it.

"But what are you doing here?" a young male Auror, who looked to be about Tonks' age, asked.

"We came to find my sister," Buffy said, indicating Dawn who was standing next to her. "She and Harry were out on a date when she called me to say there were a bunch of demons attacking people where they were."

"So, in rode the cavalry," Xander noted with a flourish of his crossbow.

Everyone began talking again - mostly about how Buffy had skillfully dispatched the demons. Tonks, however, remained mostly quiet, giving Harry the strangest look.

"What is it?" he finally asked her after a minute.

"You were on a _date_ with the _sister_ of the Vampire Slayer?" she asked incredulously.

"Well, I didn't _know_ her sister was the slayer," Harry said off-handedly, then felt his face grow a little warm. "And it was just sort-of a date. I mean, it didn't start out as us planning it as such, not really, but she said she didn't mind - and _I_ didn't mind . . . ."

Somehow, in one night, he'd seemed to have picked up Dawn's ability to babble.

Tonks didn't seem to notice. "Hmm. And how did you two just happen to be _here_ of all places?"

Uh oh.

He was in for it now.

Mercifully - or just by damn luck - he was saved from answering when one of the Aurors, who Harry recognized as Williamson said, rather loudly, "Oh save us. Kingsley, Miller's here."

Kingsley groaned, and Harry looked in the direction Williamson had just pointed. A slightly average sized and rigid looking man, with equally rigid-looking brown hair - not one was out of place - was making his way around the wounded Aurors and dead demons. He was steadily heading in the direction where Harry, and the now slightly large group he was with, were still standing in the middle of the street. He walked as if he had a rod down his back that made him stand in the straightest way possible. The look on his face was one of complete no-nonsense.

A short, mousy faced man with glasses was following after him, holding a brown satchel.

"Who's Miller?" Harry asked Tonks.

Tonks pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose, as if she'd just tasted a boogey-flavored bean.

"Regnum Miller," she said with barley disguised distain. "Head of Security and the Obliviation Department at the Ministry of Magic. Never met a rule book he didn't immediately commit to memory, or send a memo out about if it was broken."

"That man's a complete stuff shirt, especially about Muggles," Kingsley noted, not even bothering to hide his disdain. "Oh, he's not a supporter of You-Know-Who," he said noting Harry's look. "He just thinks any Muggle knowledge of our world is dangerous. He was a supporter of that blasted bill a few years ago that wanted to Obliviate the memories of all immediate family members of Muggle-borns after they come of age. As if such a thing wouldn't cause a _load_ of problems!"

"Wait a minute . . . Obliviate?" Buffy asked, suspicious. She and her friends had been listening.

"You mean, like, changing peoples memories?" Willow asked.

"More like erasing them," Tonks said. "He's the one who was put in charge of your security watch - on Fudge's orders," she told Harry.

"Why do you need security?" Dawn asked him, but Harry was still back on the news that the Ministry of Magic had been the ones guarding him all this time, and looked at Tonks in disbelief.

"But I thought the Order was -"

"Shh!" Kingsley cut him off, quieting him as Miller came up, looking Harry over as he did.

"So, I see Mr. Potter's alright then?" he said to Kingsley. His voice was just as dry and rigid as the man himself looked.

"I'm fine," Harry told him, not liking the fact that Miller hadn't just asked Harry himself if he were alright.

Miller took no notice of what Harry had said and was still waiting for Kingsley to answer.

Kingsley rolled his eyes. "You _heard_ him Miller, he's fine."

Miller just nodded in a no-nonsense way. He looked over at the mousy man beside him. "And these are the Muggle witnesses then?" he asked with a nod in the direction Buffy, Dawn and their friends.

The shorter man nodded, his eyes shifting between his boss and the group of Muggles. "Y-yes. Bu-but sir -!"

"Have you been taking statements from them?" Miller addressed Kingsley again.

"Not really," Kingsley said dryly.

Miller frowned. "Then why are they still here? Are you saying you haven't modified their memories yet?"

Harry could see that Miller's way of treating and referring to Buffy and her friends as if they weren't even there was starting to annoy Buffy greatly.

"Yeah, Miller, that's what I'm sayin'," Kingsley said again in that same dry voice.

Miller's frown deepened and he shook his head. "Mr. Shacklebolt, you know quite well what the regulation on Muggle eye-witnesses to Dark Magic are. Section 23, paragraph six clearly states -"

Kingsley looked as if he were about to strangle the guy, when Tonks broke in.

"Oh for goodness _sakes_ Miller! We all know what it says," she said with exasperation.

Miller glanced at Tonks, then shrugged. "Well, this is easy to rectify, at any rate," he said with a nod, taking out his wand.

Miller's assistant seemed to grow more agitated, and he was eyeing Buffy rather worriedly. "Sir, remember what I -"

But Miller paid the man no mind as he leveled his wand right at Buffy . . .

. . . and suddenly found his wand pushed roughly toward the ground, just as he said "Obliviate!"

The spell was deflected uselessly onto the ground.

"Don't _ever_ try that again," Buffy said in a voice that was much more no-nonsense than Miller's, and way more threatening.

Miller was staring at her as if he couldn't quite believe what had just happened.

"I - I told you she was The Slayer sir," the mousy assistant said sadly.

Miller shook his head, looking quite perturbed at his assistant. "And again I say - nonsense. The Slayer's a made-up fallacy."

"Huh. You look pretty solid for someone who's made-up Buff," Xander commented wryly to his friend.

Miller - for the first time - looked at Buffy's friends, and then just stared at Xander for a few moments, as if the young American man were something quite alien looking to him.

"I'd believe the slayer thing if I were you Miller - because she _is_," Kingsley said, with an absolutely smug attitude.

Miller shook his head again. "Impossible," he said with a sniff. After a moment, he lifted his wand again, pointing it at Xander this time -

And Buffy knocked the wand away again - much harder and faster than she had the first time - and this time it went flying out of Miller's hand onto the ground. "Point that stick at any of my friends again, and I will stick it in you someplace where it will take them _days_ to find it!" she snapped.

Miller was now clutching his wrist, staring at her in unveiled shock, and his assistant shook his head again, sadly. "She - she _is_ The Slayer sir!" the man exclaimed. "More than over a dozen Aurors saw what she did to those demons. They say it's because of _her_ that the demons were stopped from . . . doing anymore damage. She - she doesn't _have_ the normal physical strength or speed of an ordinary Muggle sir."

"Or any witch or wizard either, for that matter," Tonks said evenly. She glanced at Buffy, who was still busy staring Miller down. "And which - I'd say - would technically classify her as a . . . Magical Creature?" Tonks looked at Kingsley, a mischievous smile on her face.

Kingsley, quickly picking up her line of thought, nodded in agreement. "Which would mean she would fall under the statute of permitted knowledge of our world," he added with a grin. He was obviously enjoying rubbing Miller about the situation at hand.

There was a pause as Miller looked at Kingsley and Tonks, and then over at Dawn, Giles, Willow and Xander. "There are still the others," he noted, trying again to sound authoritative and in charge of the situation again. "_They're_ not Magical Creatures - only Muggles."

"They're with me," Buffy said evenly, in a tone that indicated that was all that needed to be said. "So the no-memory wipe thing goes _double _for them."

Miller may have been a stuff shirt, but even _he_ could tell that there was no getting around her on this point either. "Fine!" he finally exclaimed angrily, still rubbing his obviously sore wrist. "But you all will have to fill out all the necessary forms and documents pertaining not only to what each of you have witnessed here tonight, but also -"

"Miller, cool it. They can do all of that later, alright?" Kingsley said.

Tonks nodded. "Yes. Besides, we should really escort Harry home now. It may still not be safe for him out here," she noted in a serious tone, though her eyes were dancing. She placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.

Miller barely glanced at Harry, his focus still on Buffy and her friends. "See that he gets home safely then," he said absently.

"Will do," Tonks said pleasantly. "Come along Harry."

Harry, however, didn't move, but glanced over at Dawn, and then at her sister. "But -" he hesitated. He had no idea if Buffy was still angry at him for having put Dawn in danger . . . and if he should apologize - no matter how silly it would be, under the circumstances, if she was.

Dawn gave him a quiet smile. "I had a nice time Harry. You know, even with the avoiding-of-death and running-for-our-lives stuff at the end there," she said with bemusement.

Buffy also gave him a small grin. "You and Dawn can see each other tomorrow," she told him, no hint of anger coming from her at him. "And thanks for keeping her safe."

"It was nothing," Harry said quietly. _If I hadn't been trying to bend the rules, she wouldn't have even been here in the first place,_ he though to himself, darkly.

Kingsley interrupted whatever other guilty thoughts Harry was starting to have, as he took Harry by the shoulder and steered him over to a Ministry car that Harry hadn't even noticed had arrived.

"Come on. Let's get you home."

* * *

Thanks to Bean and Arieanna for the beta-reading! 

Now, replies:

**123Michaelc:** Thanks for the beta offer, truly. Even though I have someone now I believe, I do appreciate it.

**Evilclone:** I'm glad you like the story. I'm sorry I don't really have the answer to your question, but you might want to try the Buffy Writer's Guide online. It has almost every recourse about the Buffyverse.

**TwoBrokenToCry, Des Felidra, Reven Eid, RaeAngel, Dnic5, madskillzpro, IsiwaruOfCkaloatia,** and **Passionatedarkness:** thank you all so much for the kind words.

**Allen Pitt:** I'm so happy to hear that this crossover feels smooth to you. I've been working really hard to make sure everything integrates between the two worlds as naturally as possible. Glad to hear that it's paying off. :)

**Panther28:** I decided to do Harry's POV for three reasons. One, I haven't seen, or read, any crossovers done with just one POV, so I knew it would be different to try and do it that way. Two, Rowling's books are written that way, and since this story is more about the Scoobies entering the Pottervers than visa versa, it seemed like the way to go. Three, and the most selfish reason I did it is because I then would be spared having to do multiple exposition chapters, like this one, from multiple characters POVs. :D

**Ringo's Wildrose:** About Sirius - you know, I have to say I don't really think Rowling is going to bring him back. Not saying I don't think Harry might get a vision - or visit from the dead by or something. But him back in living flesh? I really don't think she's going to go there, only because I think she likes to really pour the angst on the poor boy. ;D

**phoenix83ad:** About Xander's eye. I actually debated if I would get Xander a Moody-like new eye in the future, but decided against it, because there is already too much going on in the story - at least from the outline I have of the whole story - right now. So Xander's going to continue to have the wicked-cool eye patch. As for who will be teaching at Hogwarts - well. Don't want to give anything away, but while their will be "teaching" by the Scoobies, they will _not_ be part of the Hogwarts faculty. Remember, they do have other things they have to do, like rebuild the watchers council, finding newly called slayers and training _them_ and such - along with something else they'll be helping with. And that's all I'll say. ;)

Again, thanks for all the reviews everyone. As every writer says - we live on them. So keep them coming, please. :D

Next up - Chapter Four: The Ministry Guard.


	4. The Ministry Guard

**Author's Note:** I want to give everyone a few more notes about this story, just to get questions about these things out of the way - like I did about the "no dead characters will be coming back" and the "no fanon!Draco" things I did at the start of Chapter One. Having gotten further into the writing of this story, I don't think knowing these things (now) will spoil anything. So:

1. There isn't going to be a slayer-witch. I will admit, for a while during the outlining of this story, I did toy with the idea of making a witch at Hogwarts a slayer. (But I wont say who. ;D) But then, as the mythology I was planning for the story began to grow, I realized that it would not only be too much to do - but also, in the end, it didn't really _go_ anywhere. Plus, it conflicted totally with one of my later plot-points, and therefore didn't work. So I cut it out. (And which is why I'm telling you all about it now.) So don't look for Hermione, or Ginny, or any other Hogwarts teen to be a slayer.

2. Dawn's key-ness will play a part in the story. A big part, actually, though not the only big part.

Review replies are at the end; just know even if I don't individually reply to you, I _am_ reading everyones reviews and really appreciate them all. Again, all reviews - excepting flames - are wanted. It's the only pay we fanfic writers get. ;)

Extra Note: I am having some computer problems right now, so there will be slightly more of a wait for the next chapter, as I will be spending this weekend not writing, but trying to fix whatever is wrong. (No worries though, back-ups of all files containing this story have already been made).

* * *

**Chapter Four: The Ministry Guard**

_Clear your mind._

_12:58 PM._

Dawn's bus would be arriving in little more than half an hour, but Harry didn't even move to get up from where he was laying on top his bed. He was dressed, but his glasses were off, lying on the bedside table where the small alarm clock that he had just glanced at was sitting.

His scar was still tingling slightly, only little less then twelve hours later, from when it had first exploded with heat and pain.

Voldemort was angry.

Harry could only guess as to why . . . probably having to do with the raid last night. All he really knew through was that he'd been trying to sleep, and then all of the sudden his head had exploded in white-hot pain, waking him from the half-sleep state he was in. The pain had been ferocious, even as feelings of hate, and a deep desire to kill had built up in him. It had reached such a fever pitch that, looking back on it now, he almost couldn't believe that such a level of hate actually existed in another person . . . it was a level of such dark emotion, that it had left Harry panting and physically ill, even after it began to subside.

He had felt that kind of hate only once before, but last time it had only been for a second. When Voldemort had looked out of Harry's own eyes and into those of the only man he had ever feared - Albus Dumbledore.

Harry had laid on his bed, still shaking for almost half and hour afterwards, feeling absolutely sick to his stomach. When he'd finally recovered a little measure of his strength, he's gotten out of bed, sat down at his desk, pulled out a small roll of parchment.

When his scar had hurt before in the past two years, he'd written to Sirius about it. But he couldn't do that anymore.

And this was much more than just his scar hurting.

_Professor Dumbledore,_

_I felt what Voldemort was feeling again. He was very angry about something. So much so wanted to kill them - and I know the person he wanted to kill wasn't one of his followers. What should I do?_

_Harry_

He had wanted to say more . . . a little about the room he'd seen Voldemort in, and all the books that were piled high in the place . . . but he didn't know if Hedwig would get the letter to Professor Dumbledore without it being intercepted first.

Especially with Ministry Security watching him now.

He'd sealed the letter and had had to wake up a cranky Hedwig, giving her a treat, before she would go off and deliver the letter.

Now he was waiting, trying to clear his mind as best he could. Waiting hopefully for a reply - and for one soon.

_1:07 PM._

Hedwig's cage wasn't empty, even though she was off delivering his letter. Ron's Owl, Pig was fluttering about, waiting for Harry to compose a reply to the two letters that had arrived for him late that morning - one form Ron, the other from Hermione.

Apparently, they had both been told about what happened last night. Or most of it at least.

Harry supposed either Kingsley or Tonks must have told them about it. Hermione's letter pretty much warned him to try and stay closer to home from now on, just until Professor Dumbledore said it was okay for him to leave the Dursleys again. She also pointedly asked him what he was doing bringing a Muggle so near the Leaky Cauldron.

Ron's letter had not been one warning him of caution, however. _His_ just mostly focused on Harry's mystery girl - and how come Harry had never told them about her? And was she really a Muggle, and if she was pretty.

Once again, Harry was thankful for Ron's ability to focus on the more interesting matter, to his mind anyway.

_1:13 PM._

Tonks and Kingsley hadn't completely laid into him when he'd finally explained how he and Dawn had come to be there in the first place. Kingsley had looked at him with disapproval of course, and Tonks shook her head in exasperation - before telling him that he really wasn't the first teenage wizard to have tried to sneak an unauthorized Muggle into the Leaky Cauldron. Apparently, such things were common enough among Muggle-born teenagers and, apparently, there were wards that prevented an underage wizard from actually _bringing_ a Muggle - other than ones own parents - into the Leakey Cauldron.

All Harry would have been able to do was bring Dawn into a hall with series of never-ending doors, if he had tried to enter with her, and they would have just had to go back outside again.

Harry had felt completely humiliated after Tonks had told him that.

Not to mention his stupid and reckless move had ended up putting Dawn in danger . . . just as the one he'd made a few weeks ago with Sirius.

Buffy had had every right to be angry with him.

_Clear your mind._

_1:27 PM._

He wasn't going to go and meet Dawn's bus. He knew that. Plus, after last night, he wondered if he would even be able to actually leave the house anymore, now that he knew the Ministry of Magic had been the ones guarding him all this time. Would they try and stop him from going anywhere other than around Little Whinging and Privet Drive - before he returned to school again - after last night?

Tonks had told him that once the Order had gotten the information that the Ministry was moving to take it upon themselves to guard him, the Order had thought it best not to try and interfere, or risk getting exposed. Fudge was still paranoid about Dumbledore wanting to take over his job, or raising his own army. It was not at all the right time for him to find out that Dumbledore already _had_ a secret organization not only to fight against Voldemort, but to guard Harry as well. It was too much of a risk.

_1:33 PM._

Dawn's bus had most likely come and gone by now. Had she even gotten off when she hadn't seen him waiting there for her?

More to the point - after last night, had she even gotten _on_ the bus to come and see him?

_Well, she'll be going to Italy for school in a few weeks anyway,_ he thought sadly._ Maybe its better that I don't see her again. I can just think of the great times we had the past week and a half, and leave it at that I guess._

He sighed, not really believing what he was trying to tell himself.

_Clear your mind._

Harry drifted a little, trying to empty his mind of all thoughts of emotion as he'd been told to when Snape had been trying to teach him Occlumency. But every few moments, his thoughts would go back to Dawn. He'd see her in his mind, laid out on the ground after she'd been hit by the body binding hex . . . but this time her eyes were more glassy than they'd been before, more like Cedric's had been, and instead of being warm, she was cold . . . .

Harry shook his head. _She's not dead, she's alright and she's with her sister - who apparently has super strength. She's fine, she didn't get hurt._

_Clear your mind._

_This isn't working,_ Harry thought sitting up and rubbing his tired eyes in frustration. He reached over and took up his glasses to put back on, just as he heard the front doorbell ring downstairs.

_1:41 PM._

Harry got up from his bed and went over to the open window and leaned out, staring at the sky, desperate for any sign of Hedwig.

The sound of voices from downstairs carried up to him.

"- _you_?"

His thoughts drifted back to the incident with his scar. Voldemort hadn't been seething with rage towards any of his Death Eaters. There had been a few there in that room with him, but he hadn't taken his ire out on any of them. And that rage hadn't been about Harry himself either. Voldemort's wrath had been directed at_ someone_ though, Harry was sure of it. As if something had surprised him greatly, and that surprise wasn't pleasant in the slightest.

He hadn't felt anything from Voldemort in weeks, not since that night at the Department of Mysteries. He didn't think Voldemort was trying to purposely show him anything though, to mess with his mind as he had for most of last year, sending Harry images to try and manipulate him. Not this time.

_"Get out now!" _his Uncle's voice - muffled slightly by his closed bedroom door, but still loud - came drifting up, breaking Harry's thoughts. A second voice now, only slightly as raised as his Uncle's, answered back.

". . . _shout_ about it! Geez! Just . . . ."

A girl's voice. A girl he knew.

Without thinking twice, Harry turned and rushed out of his room towards the top of the stairs. He was there just in time to see his Uncle roughly closing the front door in the face of one Dawn Summers.

"Dawn! Wait!" Harry called, hoping she could hear him though the close front door and hadn't started to leave yet.

"What do you think you're doing boy?" Vernon said, blocking Harry from the front door, as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm trying to let my friend in, that's what I'm doing!"

"Well, she's already left, gone. So back up to your room!" Vernon said smugly.

"You didn't even tell her I was here, did you?" Harry said, anger bubbling up in him.

"Doesn't matter what I told her. She's gone. Now go up!" Vernon said, and roughly shoved Harry in the direction of the stairs - just as a very loud knock sounded on the front door.

"Harry? Are you there? It's me, Dawn," Dawn's raised voiced - muffled by the front door - called out. "Don't lie to me again Mr. Dursley, I know he's in there! I can hear his voice!"

Vernon was too busy sputtering about Dawn having - loudly and in front of his own house - called him a liar, that he didn't stop Harry from darting around him, and quickly wrenching open the front door.

Her hand was raised in a fist, as if she had been planning to knock again. She quickly lowered it when she saw who had answered the door this time. "Hey," she grinned at him. "You weren't at the bus stop. So I thought I'd stop by your house, see if you were okay."

"I'm -" Harry broke off, and looked around. He didn't notice anyone on the street, but now that he knew Ministry people were watching and guarding him, that didn't mean there wasn't anyone there.

He took Dawn by the hand, pulled her inside, and quickly shut the door. "We shouldn't talk outside. Come on," he said, not letting go of her hand as he headed for the stairs.

"Now see hear boy - !" Vernon said loudly, having finally recovered from his sputtering fit; he stepped in front of Harry and Dawn to block the way upstairs.

His Aunt Petunia entered the hall from the kitchen, at the sound of her husband's loud voice. "Vernon dear, what -?" She stopped as she caught sight of Dawn. "Who's she?" she asked with unamused surprise. Harry knew that his Aunt could probably guess who Dawn was, but was most likely just being disagreeable.

"Aunt Petunia, this is Dawn. Dawn, my Aunt Petunia," Harry said shortly.

"Hello," Dawn said just as shortly in greeting. She was polite, but wary after having to endure Vernon at the front door.

Aunt Petunia wasn't polite, and didn't even return Dawn's greeting. She just looked at her husband. "What's _she _doing here?" she hissed.

"She's here to see _me_," Harry said, not caring that his tone was turning snappish as he tried to lead Dawn around Vernon and up the stairs.

Again, Uncle moved into their path. "And just where do you think you're headed with her?"

"To my room. You told me to get back up there," Harry said smartly.

Vernon's face had gone completely red. "To your room? _I should think bloody well not!_ Do you honestly think your Aunt and I are just going to let you take _this_ _girl_ up there, so you can get up to God knows what under our very -!"

"We're just going to _talk!_" Harry explained angrily, but felt his face turning red. He didn't look back at Dawn as he was now thoroughly embarrassed.

"Talk eh! If you think I'm stupid enough to believe -!"

Harry restrained himself from pointing out that his Uncle believed it when Dudley said so whenever he'd go to take Nancy up to _his_ room - and that showed he _wasn't_ smart; but he stopped himself.

He'd just thought of something else.

"Alright then!" Harry said, suddenly feigning pleasantness. "Dawn, could you wait here for a minute?" he said looking back at her, but keeping and eye on his Uncle out of the corner of one eye. "I've just got to go up and dash off a letter to my friends. They've been very interested lately on how I'm doing. You know, making sure I'm being treated alright and such." He looked back at his Uncle again, this time with a bright - and knowing - smile.

His Uncle's face seemed to have turned from beet red to a sickly pale in under half a second, his Adam's apple bobbing as he gave a choking swallow.

"Uh, sure," Dawn said, sounding slightly confused. "I guess I -"

Vernon turned and moved away from blocking the stairs, and pulled an obviously stunned Petunia back into the kitchen with him.

Dawn looked even more confused as Harry gave a self-satisfied smirk and led her up the stairs to his bedroom.

He closed the door after they entered, and sighed as he leaned back against it. Then, he looked over at her as she stood in the middle of the room, across from him. His bedroom was untidy as always - clothes and books lying on the floor and desk - but she didn't seem to be taking much notice of the cluttered mess. "Sorry about that," he told her with a sigh.

"About that?" Dawn said pointing in the direction of downstairs, and then shrugged. "Don't worry about it. He was actually -"

He just looked at her.

"-much worse in person than I ever imagined he _could_ be," she finished ruefully. "You handled him pretty well though."

Harry shrugged. "It was nothing."

Dawn smiled. "Well, if you ever discover that he's not really human or anything, just call my sister. She'll be happy to take care of him for you."

Harry gave a short snort of laughter. Then, there was a sudden awkward silence, ad the two of them just looked at each other for a few moments. By mentioning her sister, Dawn had - whether on purpose or not - brought the subject around to what had happened last night.

"Oh my God, he's so cute!" she exclaimed suddenly. She'd caught sight of Pig, who was still hooting and fluttering around in Hedwig's cage. She went over to the cage and wiggled a finger at the small Owl. "Hiya little fella."

Pig hooted and fluttered about happily, and then playfully nipped her finger. She gave a little squeal of surprise, but didn't look angry or anything.

"What's his name?" she asked with amusement.

"Pigwidgeon, but everyone calls him Pig. He belongs to Ron."

"Oh yeah, your best friend . . . who's a wizard too?" Dawn asked mildly, turning her head slightly to look back at him. Part of her long hair slightly veiled her face as she did so.

"Yes," Harry said simply, after a pause. "Ron's a wizard too."

Dawn looked at him for a moment longer, and then turned back to Pig. When she spoke up again, she wasn't talking to Ron's owl, however. "How come you weren't at the bus stop?" she asked quietly.

Harry didn't say anything. What _could_ he say_? Because I'm embarrassed about what happened? Because I didn't want to see you blaming me for putting you in danger? Because I still don't really know what to say?_

When it became obvious that Harry wasn't going to say anything, Dawn spoke again. "By the way, I told some of those Auror guys about those two - Death Eaters? That's what there called, right? Well, I told them about the two we caught in the alley. They took them away before Buffy and the rest of us left," she told him as she moved away from Pig and sat down on the bed, facing him again.

"Oh," Harry said with mild surprise. "I'd forgotten all about them."

"Yeah, I did too for a minute, what with all that was going on. _And_ trying to keep an eye on that Miller guy, who really looked like he wanted to zap us with that stick of his, even after you left."

"I guess if he had tried, your sister would have just done what she'd threatened to do through, huh?" Harry said distantly.

Dawn gave a short laugh. "Oh yeah. Unlike the rest of us, he was keeping his eyes away from Buffy. Making her mad? Not a good -"

"I'm sorry Dawn," Harry interrupted quietly looking down, unable to meet her eyes anymore.

Dawn paused, her smile fading as she looked at Harry's solemn face. "Sorry?" she asked worriedly. "Sorry about what?"

"About last night." He shook his head, still not meeting her eyes. "I shouldn't have tried to bring you there. It was a mistake."

"A mistake?" she said, pausing slightly before she spoke. Her voice sounded funny to his ears; as if she had something in her throat.

"Yeah. It was against the rules. And you could have gotten hurt because of it," he sighed. "I'm sorry."

There was a very uncomfortable silence. A very long one it seemed to him, and something that had never happened between them before. Then, finally, she asked in a low voice, "Why did you take me there then?"

Harry stuffed his hands in his pockets, keeping his eyes downward, "Because I was stupid," he muttered in self-hatred.

"I think we've partly established _that _already," she said coolly. Harry _did_ look up at her at that, and she was looking at him now with a slightly cold gaze. "What was the _other_ reason?"

"I wanted to know . . ."

"Know what?"

He gave a frustrated sigh. "Know how you might react to the idea that there might be strange and - different - things. Different - people - in the world."

"You mean like . . . wizards and stuff kind of people?" she said, her cool look fading a little.

"Yes," he tiredly. "Like . . . that."

She was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then, she gave him a small smile. "So . . . you were trying to tell me? About what you are?"

Harry felt as if he had a huge stone in his stomach. "In a way I thought I could, yeh," he chocked out honestly. "But I didn't think . . . and you could have gotten hurt because of me. Because I . . . anyway, I'm sorry."

She didn't say anything, just looked at him curiously for a few moments. Then, she stood up and moved the few steps necessary to stand directly across from him.

What happened next was so incredible, Harry felt as if his whole mind would explode from the sheer excitement of it.

She leaned up slightly, moved forward a little more, and kissed him. Softly, lightly and gently, on the cheek, near the corner of his lips.

Harry could only stare at her as he felt an utterly goofy grin begin to spread across his face. She gave him a shy smile in return, and moved a little away from him again. "Thank you," she said gratefully.

"For what?" he choked out, still slightly in awe and barely aware of his own voice. She was moving back to sit on the bed again . . . and all he wanted to do was reach out, take her hand, and pull her back near him.

"For wanting to tell me the truth," she said happily.

* * *

Harry was still leaning against his bedroom door, (mostly to make sure his Aunt or Uncle didn't try to barge in on them), as Dawn told him everything about what he'd missed after he'd been taken home by Tonks and Kingsley last night. She and her sister and friends had stayed about an hour afterwards, talking with a few of the Aurors as the clean-up of Charing Cross Road went on. 

"I still can't quite believe your sister is the actual Vampire Slayer," Harry said in wonderment, having just mentioned a few of the things he'd read about the slayer in his Defense book to Dawn, including some of the myths said about her.

"Yeah, well I still don't think that Miller guy believes it," Dawn said chuckling. "The few times he didn't notice I was looking, I caught him muttering 'Nonsense!'" - she had put on a fake and stuffy British accent as she'd said the word - "once or twice as he was rubbing his wrist!"

"Well, it _is_ pretty astounding," Harry noted. From the things Kingsley had told him on the way back to Privet Drive last night, Harry had found out that the existence of the slayer was actually the subject of much heated debate in the Wizarding world. There was no record of any witch or wizard in their world having actually met one. Some argued that the Watcher's Council was full of nothing but a bunch of Muggles who practiced Dark Earth Magics, and used the Slayer as an excuse to try and spy on the going-ons of the Wizarding world.

Dawn was giving him a strange look. She'd looked hedgy for a while now, and seemed to be dying to say something that was on her mind. "I don't think so," she said eyeing him now. "Truth is, I think the story I heard last night about 'The Boy Who Lived' was _much_ more - astounding."

Harry stared at her, numbly. _Oh brilliant!_ he thought exasperatingly.

Dawn was quiet now, peering at him, trying to gage his reaction to what she'd just said to him.

"No," he finally replied dryly after a few moments. "It's _not_ that astounding."

Dawn gave him a wry grin. "Alright," she said simply. "If you say so."

He sighed, knowing there was no getting around this. "Well, what did you hear?"

"Your basic hero-worship stuff," she said off-handedly, then gave him a sly look. "Giles realized he'd already heard some of it before - and we kinda went into research mode when we got home and looked up the rest."

"And?" Harry asked, pursing his lips together as he crossed his arms.

"And? You tell me?" she asked evenly. "How accurate _is Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_?"

Harry didn't say anything for a moment, as he recognized the title she'd given as one of the books Hermione had told him he was mentioned in, back in their first year. Finally, he just shrugged. "I don't know," he said nonplussed. "I haven't read it."

"Really?" she asked, slightly surprised.

"Really."

She paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. Then noted, "But that's why you have security, and people watching you and stuff, right? Because of that Wal-Mart-wizard guy?"

Harry could stop himself from letting out a short snort of amusement. "Voldemort," he corrected her.

"Yeah_, him._ And what's the deal with his name anyway? Last night, all anybody would call him is 'You-Know-Who', and Buffy was all 'No, actually we _don't_.'"

Harry didn't know if she was purposefully tying to make him laugh, but he couldn't help chuckling none the less. "Lots of people are afraid to say his name," he told her. "Ron winces every time I say it."

"People are afraid to say his name?" she asked incredulously.

Harry nodded.

"And now this same badass wizard guy is back? After you first defeated him, when you were just a baby?"

"I _didn't_ defeat him when I was a baby," Harry told her moodily.

"But the spell he tried to kill you with didn't work, right?"

Harry couldn't help but feel slightly weird as he found himself talking with Dawn about all of this. Ever since he'd found out about being a wizard, he never had to tell anyone about who he was, or what had happen to him as a baby, or especially who _Voldemort_ was. Everyone had already known those things. In fact, it had been he, Harry who'd been in the dark about all of it after he'd found out what he was.

"The curse rebounded. It's unblockable but . . . anyway. All I got from it was this," he said softly, rubbing the scar on his forehead. The slight pain it had been burning with seemed to have all but receded now.

She looked at the scar on his forehead and nodded, as if understanding. "And . . . and _he's_ the one who killed your parents?" she asked carefully.

He didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes as he held her gaze must have given her his answer. "I really don't mean to pry or anything," she said softly, glancing away embarrassed. "I'm sorry."

Harry shook his head. "No, its okay," he reassured her. "It's nothing anyone else in the Wizarding world doesn't already know."

She was still looking away, awkwardly, when a faint waffle of music cut through the air, and an electronic sounding version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" began to play.

Dawn shook herself slightly, and reached over for her purse, pulling out the ringing cell phone inside.

"I thought that got broken," Harry noted.

"Willow fixed it for me," she told him as she pressed one of the buttons to accept the call, and then put the phone to one ear.

"Hey Buffy," she said into the phone, already knowing who was calling. Harry gestured at the door, offering to leave and give her some privacy, but she waved him off, telling him he could stay.

"Yeah," she was saying into the phone. "I am . . . no, he told me and that's _not_ why he brought me there. I told you I was right," she said, giving Harry a rueful smile. Harry closed his eyes and groaned; he didn't really want to know what Buffy had just said about why she thought he'd been bringing Dawn to the Leaky Cauldron for. _Guess she's angry with me again._

"No . . . uh huh . . . I will. Is that all?" Dawn asked into the phone, glancing at Harry again. Then her face took on a curious look. "What happened?" she asked, listening closely to whatever her sister was telling her. Then, she said in surprise, "Oh! Harry's got an Owl here! He said it's his best friends' . . . there were letters attached to their legs?" she asked unbelievingly.

Harry looked at her shocked. "Your sister got an Owl Post?" he asked, completely astonished.

Dawn glanced up at him. "Buffy, apparently they're called Owl Posts . . . ." The reply on the other end caused Dawn to roll her eyes, and placed a hand over the receiver. "She said she figured it was mail of some sort, since they had envelopes addressed to her and Giles attached to their legs."

"They?" he queried.

"There were two Owls that came, apparently."

"Well, who were they from?" Harry questioned, intrigued.

"Buffy? Who were they from?" Dawn listened quietly for a few moments. She gave a small snort, then queried, "And the other one?"

"Huh," she finally said, after listening quietly again for about a minute. "Weird name. But Giles has heard of him? . . . Oh. Okay . . . yeah, I'll be back later. Okay, bye." She pressed a button to hang up the phone.

_"Well?"_ Harry asked, curiosity eating away at him.

"Well, the first letter was a bunch of weird looking parchment contracts and stuff from that Miller guy," Dawn reported. "Buffy says they were asking us to write down everything we remembered about last night and stuff, and to send them back as soon as possible. She says the Owl is still in the room, as if waiting for us to get them done."

Harry thought for a few seconds, and grew slightly suspicious. "I don't think any of you should write anything on those parchments," he told her. "You can charm a parchment to make things happen to anybody who writes on it," he said, remembering how Hermione had done such a thing to the DA membership list last year, and what had happened to Cho Chang's best friend Marietta when she had ratted on the DA to Umbridge.

Dawn was nodding. "Buffy thought as much. Willow's checking them all over right now, just to make sure."

"Willow?" Harry asked, puzzled. "I know you said she was into hacking and computers and all but - can she actually use one to check them for a spell or something?"

"Oh yeah," Dawn gave him a slightly embarrassed look. "I forgot to tell you. You see, Will -"

Loud cracking sounds, accompanied by a scream from downstairs cut Dawn off, and startled them both.

"What the hell?" Dawn exclaimed jumping up from the bed, where she had still been sitting. "Isn't that the same sound -?"

"As when the Aurors Apparated in front of the Leaky Cauldron last night, yes," Harry said utterly mystified, turning, and headed out the bedroom. Someone had Apparated right into the house - lots of someones by the sounds of it. From what Dumbledore had told him of the protection charm he knew it couldn't be Voldemort, but he tried to keep to the side of caution anyway as he grabbed his wand and quietly made his way into the upstairs hallway with Dawn, and then down the stairs.

His Uncle Vernon was shouting, probably loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear at this point.

_"GET OUT! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU PEOPLE IN MY -!"_

On the stairs, looking over the railing, Harry could now see what had his Uncle in such a fit.

About ten official looking people stood around downstairs, some milling around looking into other rooms. Others were standing quietly, as if they were waiting for an order to move. One person Harry recognized immediately as the mousy-looking assistant from last light. He was standing in front of Vernon, holding out a roll of parchment at him and was looking at Harry's Uncle as if the man's screaming unnerved him utterly.

His Aunt Petunia was hiding behind her husband's large frame, looking absolutely terrified at the people who'd just appeared out of thin air into her immaculately clean living room.

Standing in the center of the living room was Regnum Miller, a priggish expression his face as he looked at the still yelling Vernon.

"- _MY_ HOUSE, DO YOU HEAR - !"

"What the heck is _he_ doing here?" Dawn whispered. She'd followed Harry down the stairs, and was now looking over the rail with him at the commotion in the living room.

Harry was about to suggest that maybe Dawn should make for his room before Miller spotted them, when one of the men near the entrance of the living room spoke up.

"Mr. Miller. He's right here sir," the man said, nodding in the direction of the stairs.

He and Dawn glanced at each other, and then both stood up. There was no point hiding anymore. Together, they made their way down the rest of the stairs, as Miller came over to them, walking in a way that made Harry think of a moving yardstick.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, there you are," he said in a clip voice. "Now, if you will just gather you school things please, we can be on our way, completely on schedule."

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! NO _RIGHT_ -!"

"On our way? On our way _where?_" Harry asked, trying to ignore his Uncle's bellowing.

Miller reached into his robes and held up an official looking letter. "Until further notice, you will be placed under the full guard of the Ministry of Magic, until such time as You-Know-Who has been captured."

_"What?"_ Harry exclaimed utterly perplexed.

"We were just informing your guardian of the situation -" Miller glanced back a Vernon, who had not let up with his yelling; his face was now turning a nasty shade of purple. Miller looked at Vernon as if he were a curious forging animal, before tuning his attention back to Harry. "- but I suppose it doesn't really matter, as I'm sure he has your best interests at heart."

"You don't know my Uncle," Harry couldn't stop from scoffing. "Anyhow, I can't just leave."

"Nonsense," Miller said condescendingly. (Harry suppressed a smile - Dawn impression of him earlier had actually been quite accurate). "You will be much safer under guard at the Ministry than here with these Muggles," he noted priggishly.

"OUT I SAY! OR I SHALL CALL -!"

Harry glanced at Dawn, who Miller hadn't even taken any notice of. She was taking in the entire scene with a look of disbelief on her face.

"But -" Harry started to argue again, but Miller cut him off with a snap.

"Mr. Potter, my office does not have the staff or resources at this time to guard you here twenty-four seven. And after happening upon last night's unfortunate event, I put forth that it would be much easier to guard you if you were removed from here. Minister Fudge himself signed the order himself this morning," Miller said, tucking the envelope back into his robes.

Just then, there was a knock on the front door. One of the people who had been milling around - Harry assumed they must all be Ministry guards - peeked out through the front hall curtain, and then gave Miller a short nod.

Miller returned the nod. "The car is here. Please gather your things," he said, turning away and heading for the front door.

Dawn looked after him, utterly flabbergasted. "Can he just _do_ that?" she asked.

"CAN'T JUST APPEAR IN PEOPLE'S -!"

Harry's eyes narrowed at Miller's retreating form. He was just as flabbergasted as Dawn was, but _much_ more angry. Fudge and the Ministry had just spent a full year denying his claim that Voldemort was back, having the _Daily Prophet _call him dangerous and disturbed. And Fudge and Umbridge both trying, more than once, to have him expelled from Hogwarts. Umbridge herself going so far as to set the Dementors on him.

And _now_ it seemed as if they were acting like all that was just forgotten, and they had only his best interest and safety at heart!

Before Harry could say anything, one of the guards open the front door to reveal two people standing on the steps. One of the people appeared to be just another guard.

The other person was Arthur Weasley, Ron's father.

"Mr. Weasley!" Harry sighed in relief.

Mr. Weasley smiled as he stepped inside the house. He wasn't dressed in robes, but as if he was trying to dress like a Muggle. However his purple plaid trousers clashed horribly with his orange and green checkered shirt. "Hello Harry. How are you?" he greeted him pleasantly.

"NO MORE! _NO MORE_ I SAY -!"

"Oh will you please _SHUT UP!_" Dawn finally shouted at Vernon in utter exasperation. "God! You're giving me a headache!"

"And me," Harry muttered in agreement.

Vernon stopped shouting finally - and began sputtering instead.

"Th-This is _my_ house girl, and - and I shall do -"

"Oh, Miss Summers," Miller said - turning slightly as he finally took notice of Dawn. "I hope you, as well as your sister and her companions' will all return the forms I sent to you as soon as possible." He didn't bother waiting for an answer from her as he turned back to Mr. Weasley, who was standing just inside the doorway. "Mr. Weasley. I see you've come then."

"I said I would Miller," Mr. Weasley said, remaining pleasant. "Harry should have someone he knows come along with him, so he feels comfortable and all."

Miller sniffed. "Highly irregular. But what's done is done, I suppose. Mr. Potter was just headed up to pack."

"Well, we arrived at the perfect time then!" Mr. Weasley said brightly. He put a hand on Harry's shoulder and guided him in the direction of the stairs. "Come along! Let's go up, and I'll help you get ready."

Dozens of questions were racing through Harry's mind but, now facing away from Miller, Mr. Weasley gave Harry a guarded look, as if warning him not to say anything. "Wait till we're upstairs," Mr. Weasley whispered out of the side of his mouth, confirming Harry's suspicion.

"Don't worry," Mr. Weasley said over his shoulder at Miller and the other guards, with the same pleasant tone as before. "We'll be back in just a moment!"

" - _dare_ she try and tell me, in my _own house_ - !"

* * *

"_What_ is going on?" Harry exploded the minute they were upstairs in his bedroom. Dawn had followed him and Mr. Weasley upstairs, and she closed the door quickly. 

"It's Fudge," Mr. Weasley said grimly. "There's a lot more to it that I have time to tell you right now but - needless to say, a lot of blame came down on him after that incident at the Department of Mysteries a few weeks ago."

Mr. Weasley sighed, and crossed his arms. "He seems to think trying to go above and beyond now is the best way to keep his job and position at the Ministry - especially in the face of some people calling for his resignation now. And he thinks showing his dedication to protecting _you_ as one of the keys to that."

"This isn't even about wanting to protect me from Voldemort then," Harry stated, growing even more irritated.

Mr. Weasley shook his head. "No, not all of it."

"Well, I'm not going!" Harry said vehemently, and parked himself onto his bed. He had no desire to want to stay with the Dursleys of course, but he had even _less_ of a desire to be just one of Cornelius Fudge's little political game pieces again.

Mr. Weasley shook his head. "I know how you feel Harry, but - it's best right now to just bide time for a while. And I'll be there every day, so you won't be completely isolated. Professor Dumbledore is working on something right now, but we should have you back out of there again in just a few days, that's all."

"Did you say -" Dawn started to say, but Harry interrupted her, not letting up just yet.

"Well what's he's doing that so important?" Harry snapped, not even bothering to hold his anger. "And what about the protection charm? He said I had to return _here_ every year, or -"

"Don't worry," Mr. Weasley reassured him. "I've been assured that you've been here long enough for the charm to still be in effect. If you hadn't, we would have had to find some way to head Fudge and Miller off about this, but -"

"So? Why should Harry still have to leave?" Dawn broke in, questioning.

Mr. Weasley seemed to finally come to the realization that not only was Dawn in the room, but that she was also a Muggle.

"Oh!" he said quite surprised. "How do you do? I don't believe - Harry, may I ask -?"

"Mr. Weasley, this is Dawn - Dawn Summers," Harry told him. "Dawn, this is Mr. Weasley. He's my friend Ron's father."

"Hi," Dawn said, holding out her hand to shake.

Mr. Weasley was looking quite ecstatic as he took the offered hand, even going so far as to give a slight hop. "Oh my! You're the young lady I heard about from Tonks. The sister of the Vampire Slayer!"

Dawn raised her eyebrows in slight surprise at his display. "Uh, yep. That's me."

"I'm sorry," he said, releasing Dawn's hand and looking between her and Harry. "It's just - I find the whole idea of a magical muggle quite extraordinary! Tell me," Mr. Weasley asked her enthusiastically, "is it true she has wooden stakes for hands?"

"Huh?" Dawn said, completely dumbfounded.

Harry shook his head, slightly amused despite all that was going on at the moment. "I've met the slayer Mr. Weasley and she's got two regular hands, same as you and me."

Mr. Weasley actually looked slightly disappointed at this news. "Oh. I always imagined . . . well, never mind. We should get you packed now Harry," he said returning to the business at hand. He looked around at the slight mess in Harry's room, then took out his wand and gave it a short flick.

Harry's clothes and the schoolbooks stacked on his desk flew to his open trunk and began packing themselves inside.

Dawn looked at the packing items with a wide smile on her face. "_So_ cool!"

"Where am I supposed to be _staying_ there anyway?" Harry groused, as his last few items arranged themselves as neatly as they could in his trunk.

"The Ministry has guest flats for International guests and dignitaries," Mr. Weasley told him. "They're going to put you up there. At their _own_ expense at that," he added, rather sardonically.

Harry sighed wearily. He didn't want to do this - but if Dumbledore thought it best to just humor Fudge for the time being . . . .

He hated not having much - if _any_ - say about this though.

"It's only for a few days, right?"

Mr. Weasley gave him an assured nod.

"Alright then," he said resigned. He looked over at Dawn - and suddenly realized he didn't know if he ever would get back to see again her before she left for school in two weeks.

Dawn too seemed to realized this could be the last they saw each other, quite possibly for a long time. "You never gave me your school address," she told him, trying to hide her growing sadness. "And let me give you mine. You did promised to write to me, remember?"

"Don't need addresses," Harry told her with a slight melancholy air. He went over and picked up Hedwig's cadge, Pig still flittering happily about in it. "Owl Post. Owls can find someone wherever they are, and deliver a letter to them. My Owl Hedwig is off delivering a letter right now, but when you see a snow white Owl at you're window you'll know it her, okay?"

Dawn nodded in understanding.

"Mr. Weasley! Mr. Potter! We must leave now if we're to remain on schedule!" Miller's dry voice called from downstairs.

Mr. Weasley gave both of them an understanding smile, then cleared his throat. "Well. Come on then Harry. We'd better go down now, before Miller begins to combust," he said and, with another flick of his wand, Harry's school trunk closed and locked with a snap.

When they all finally got downstairs again - Mr. Weasley carrying Harry's school trunk and Firebolt for him - Vernon was holding his throat and acting quite strangely. His face was still red, and his mouth was moving as if he were still yelling, but no sound was coming out of it.

"Vernon? Vernon, what have they done to you?" Harry's Aunt was crying worriedly, fussing over her husband.

Mr. Weasley looked at Miller with raised eyebrows.

"Standard silencing charm," he said simply. "Couldn't be helped. Had he continued, he would have fully attracted the attention of every Muggle who lived on this street. Come along, the car is waiting."

"Are _you_ coming in the car with us?" Harry asked dully. If he actually had to share a car ride with this pompous - !

Miller sniffed. "No, _I_ will be Apparating; along with the advance team to ensure you arrive is without incident. There will be other guards who will be riding with you in the car."

Behind them in the living room, Petunia was still sniffling over her husband.

Mr. Weasley nodded, feigning pleasantness again. "Right then! Let's go Harry. See you later then Miller."

Harry looked over at Dawn as they both stood just inside the doorway. She gave him a sad smile, but didn't say good-bye. Instead, she leaned over and wrapped her arms around him a warm hug.

Harry's heart raced as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back, Hedwig's cage - with Pig still in it - in one of his hands, so he could only really return the hug with his left arm.

She kissed the side of his cheek again as she pulled back. "Good luck," she said softly.

His stomach gave a pleasant-feeling flip-flop as he gave her a grateful smile, then he and Mr. Weasley headed out the door and towards the car.

"So Harry, tell me," Mr. Weasley said quietly as they headed down the path. "Is the slayer _really_ almost as tall as a giant?"

"Uh, no," Harry said, slightly taken aback. "Actually, she's uh, kind of short really."

Mr. Weasley shook his head in complete wonderment. "Astounding!"

* * *

Again, thanks go out to my beta crew, Arieanna and Bean. Thanks for fixing my atrocious grammar slip-ups guys! 

Review Replies:

**Allen Pitt:** As I noted above, Dawn's key-ness will be used in this story. In fact, it was used in chapter 3, even thought her attempt at doing the spell didn't work. (Why? Well, for one, just remember some of the things Mr. Ollivander said regarding wands. ;D)

**Luckyshamrock:** Thank you so much for the wonderfully nice review. The action writing is one of the things I was really keen on writing correctly, as I too have read too many that have confuse me.

**TwoBrokenToCry** Thanks for the nice review. And Harry will have times when he's quite happy in this story - but he'll also had angsty times as well. Hey, if he didn't, I wouldn't have a story! ;D

**phoenix83ad:** Again, thank you for the great review. I always enjoy your comments. And I'll tell you, since I don't think it will spoil anything - one of the reasons I wanted to try my hand at a Buffy/HP crossover, (besides loving the whole idea of a Harry/Dawn pairing), was to try and do one that _didn't_ rely on one of the three main common clichés of the genre. Namely:

1. Buffy being the new DADA teacher, or anything else.  
2. Giles secretly being a wizard who's been hiding his wand from everyone.  
3. Someone in the HP-verse being Buffy or Willow's (or anybody's) long-lost relative.

Not that I have anything against those kinds of stories - I've read a few that have been done very well even. But I didn't want to do one of the same ideas again. And the few clichés I _do_ have in this story I'm hoping to do a bit differently. Joss Whedon said on the Angel season 5 DVD commentaries that his favorite things to do when he writes are to "subvert the obvious" and "subvert the genre." And - since I worship at the Alter of Whedon, as I like to say - that's the same thing I'm hoping - and trying - to do a little bit of with this story.

Oh, and hate Miller all you like. It's fun! ;D

Next up - Chapter Five: Alliances


	5. Alliances

**Author's Note: **Long wait huh? Yeah, so not only did I have some slight computer problems going on, but I also was very sick for a week. And then my dad fell ill the following week, and had to see doctors and have tests about a huge blood clot in his leg. (He couldn't even walk a few steps without pain). It looks like he's going to need surgery too.

All this means, I didn't feel much like writing at all for a few weeks, even if I had had more time to.

And then - well, ever have a chapter where there is too much going on, and too many people are talking, to the point that it drives you crazy? Well, that's what I was dealing with this part of the story. This is the longest chapter of the story to date, and the hardest out of all of it to write.

Remember when I said there would be an "Exposition Chapter - Part II"? Well, this is it.

I hate exposition.

Anyway, I hope the fact that this is the longest and most wordy chapter to date will make up for the very long delay between parts. This chapter pretty much set up the next part/arc of the story, which is why it is so long.

There are one or two things from other sources you may recognize in this chapter. Credits for them are given at the end of the chapter.

**One last word of warning** - I've read _Half-Blood Prince_ and am going to be working in as much of the "new canon" as I can (not so much all the 'ship stuff, as I'm keeping what I have planned regarding those; just mostly the things regarding Voldemort and his past), so there _will_ be spoilers for that book in this story from _this point on_, though the main plot of the story is still very much what I've already have had planned for a few months now; so this story is now parallel _and_ A/U to book six.

* * *

**Chapter Five: Alliances**

"I shall have all my devoted servants returned to me, and an army of creatures whom all fear . . . ."

_-- words spoken by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on the night of his return, as told by Harry Potter to Rita Skeeter, and first published in The Quibbler. _

Harry knew that if he didn't get out of this place very soon, he would go mad.

It had been four days now since the Ministry had brought him under their protection here at the Ministry - keeping him under constant guard in their private suite of flats - and he was well sick of it all now. It was truly a nice flat Harry allowed himself to admit; there was a sitting room with a floor to ceiling bookcase completely filled with books, a bedroom with a king-size bed and comforter all to himself. He even had his own bar-fridge in the sitting room that appeared to be charmed so that it would never grow empty - stocked with all the Butterbeer and candy anyone could wish for. There was even a Wizard Wireless.

_The Daily Prophet_ was delivered every morning, so he also wasn't completely cut off from any news. The raid had been the main topic of discussion for two days straight, (Harry's name being mentioned more than once as he had taken part in the event; though, oddly, the fact that The Slayer had been there too wasn't mentioned at all), before the news of another attack came. The second attack had also been by Death Eaters and some unknown demons.

Five people had been killed in the attack - two of whom had apparently been muggles.

If anybody had any doubts that Voldemort had returned, they were now gone. The Second War had begun.

True to his word, Mr. Weasley had been to see him every morning and every late afternoon before he left for the day. He'd even been spending his lunch hours with Harry. But Mr. Weasley hadn't had any news about when Harry could leave the Ministry just yet, and asked him to please be patient just a little bit longer. And he couldn't give Harry any more news than he already knew about the second raid that had happened.

However, today it was already late afternoon, and Mr. Weasley hadn't been to see him at all today.

And Fudge was still being perfectly insufferable. Only now, it was in a completely opposite manner to previously. Instead of treating Harry as if he were nothing more than a attention seeking liar - or worse - he was now treating Harry as if he were Harry's own father, constantly checking up on him, sending him new clothes, and constantly coming to tell Harry that if there was anything he needed, he had only to ask.

Fudge had even had the nerve to stage a ceremony in Harry's honor that very morning, with _Daily Prophet_ reporters jammed into his large office, and presenting Harry with a Medal in the Order of Merlin - First Class for alerting the world to Voldemort's return . . . as if Fudge and the Ministry hadn't just spent a year trying to deny Harry's claim!

The medal was now in the waste-paper basket next to the bar-fridge.

He was trying to be patient. Really, he was. But he wanted out of this place. _Now._

Hedwig had finally returned to him last night, with only a short note from Dumbledore, telling him to just please hold tight, and he would come for him soon.

Feeling like a caged animal, Harry began pacing up and down the room, as he had been doing since lunchtime. The only bright spot Harry had had all day was the letter that arrived that afternoon - via Hedwig - from Dawn. He had sent his owl off with a letter to Dawn not soon after Hedwig's return last night, and Dawn had sent a nice lengthy letter in reply.

It has been a rather odd letter though, and that didn't count the fact that it had arrived not on parchment paper, but regular stationary style paper instead. No, it was some of the content of it that had confused him. She told him that something exciting had just happened, but that she couldn't say anything specific about it; that she had - in fact - been _warned_ not to. She had also hinted that she may not have to go to Italy to school after all, as she had first thought.

If Dawn was to go to school in England, it would be a nice plus, Harry knew for sure. It would mean he would get to see her more often than not.

However, he'd much rather get out of this place and get to see her _now._

A hearty rhythmic knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

_Mr. Weasley! Finally!_ Harry thought as he hurried over to the main door. The two guards that stood watch by the main door always knocked like that when someone was about to be admitted by them into the room.

"Where have you -" Harry started to demand, as the door opened, but he stopped abruptly when he saw that the person standing in the doorway wasn't just one person, and that neither of them were Mr. Weasley - but instead were Ron and Hermione.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed as she rushed inside and threw her arms around him in a huge hug. "Oh! We're so sorry you had to come here! I can only imagine how much you must have hated it!"

"How are you mate?" Ron asked, giving him a wide grin as he entered the room after her. For a change, he hadn't looked as though he'd grown any taller than Harry in the few weeks they'd been apart, though he was still as gangly looking as he always had been.

"What - how did you two get here?" Harry exclaimed in surprised at the sight of his two best friends, and returned Hermione's hug.

"Dad and Dumbledore brought us," Ron explained.

"Yes," Hermione said as she finally released him, pushing some of her bushy brown hair away from her face. "When we heard they were coming to get you today, we practically begged them to take us with them."

"Dumbledore's here? Where is he?" Harry asked quickly, looking out into the hall behind his friends.

"Still talking with Fudge," Hermione told him with a sigh. "Mr. Weasley's with him. Fudge still doesn't want to let you out of here it seems like."

"Great. Knew I shouldn't have come here in the first place." Harry grumbled as the two guards left, shutting the main door with a loud thud.

"Ugh! Glad they've gone," Ron said, with a wrinkling his nose. "They did this weird spell on us to make sure we weren't hiding anything dangerous or something."

"Ron, they had to check us to make sure we weren't a threat to Harry - for his protection," Hermione explained smartly.

Ron, however, wasn't paying attention, but now staring around the fancy - and expensive looking - room in awe. "Wow! Look at this place! I'dve come here sooner if I were you Harry, if I knew I'd have gotten a room as posh as _this_," He opened the small fridge by the window, and began to rummage around in it. "Blimey! Look at all that Butterbeer! And chocolate frogs!"

"Have as much as you like," Harry said with a wave as he flopped back into one of the large winged-back chairs in the sitting room.

"Thanks mate!" Ron exclaimed happily as he took out not one but two bottles, as well as some of the chocolate frogs and settled on the floor.

"So what's Dumbledore been up to all this time? Why hasn't he come to get me sooner?" Harry demanded as his anger from before began to rise back up.

Ron and Hermione exchanged a glance. "Well, we're not exactly sure," Ron said around a mouth full of chocolate.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, folding his arms.

"Well, they don't exactly let us sit in at any of the Order meetings Harry," Hermione explained anxiously, as she sat down in the chair opposite him. "So we only know as much as they're willing to tell us."

"And the things Fred and George will tell us - they're full Order members now, you know," Ron said as he popped his now third chocolate frog in his mouth.

"Anyway, from everything they - and anyone else - would tell us, it looks like Vol -Voldemort is building his army back up again," Hermione said, ignoring Ron's shudder when she said the Dark Lord's name. "And it looks to be even bigger than the one he had the last time."

"Lots of vicious creatures too from the tell of it," Ron said with another shudder. "Demons - some that even the _Aurors_ have never heard of."

"Like the ones I saw with the Death Eaters in front of the Leaky Cauldron that night," Harry noted grimly.

"Most likely," Hermione agreed with a nod.

"Yeah, what about all that Harry? You never _did_ tell us the whole story about how you got in the middle of all that when you wrote back," Ron said.

Harry gave a small grunt. "You're not going to believe it all," he told them - and launched into the full account of everything that had happen to him the past few weeks; about how he'd first met Dawn, hanging out with her, (he ignored the waggling eyebrow look Ron gave him at this point), and how the two of them had been going to the Leaky Cauldron after the concert they'd gone to that night. ("I can't _believe_ you tried to bring a muggle there Harry! What were you thinking of?" Hermione had reprimanded him). How the Death Eaters had attacked with the demons, and how he and Dawn had had a narrow miss with both.

When he got to the part about finding out that her sister was the Vampire Slayer however, Ron quickly sat up with a start and spit out - into one hand - part of the chocolate frog he'd just bitten into. "Wait a minute!" he interrupted, looking absolutely flabbergasted. "Her _sister_ is the _Vampire_ _Slayer_? _The_ Vampire Slayer?"

"Are you _sure_?" Hermione asked, also looking completely thunderstruck.

Harry nodded, bemused. "_Very_ sure."

"Blimey! And here I thought Fred and George were just trying to pull our legs when they said that the Order had gotten in contact with her!" Ron exclaimed sharing another glance with Hermione.

"The Order is in contact with The Slayer?" Harry asked in surprise, sitting up quickly in his chair - the content of Dawn's letter from that afternoon popping back into his thoughts.

"That's what Fred and George told us - though we didn't believe them," Hermione said, sounding as if she still didn't believe it, even now. "I mean, the slayer's just a myth. She doesn't _really_ exist," she said with a firm shake of her head. "It's just a load of rubbish!"

Harry however was already on his feet, and hurried over to the desk where Dawn's letter was sitting. Quickly, he re-read the passage where she had told him something exciting was happening, but had been warned not to say anything specific.

"What's that?" Hermione asked as she and Ron came up behind him.

"It's a letter from Dawn," Harry explained, folding it down slightly so they couldn't read it over his shoulder, and turned around to face them. It wasn't that he didn't trust Ron and Hermione of course, but he still felt Dawn's letter to him was rather - private. "The day Miller and the security detail came to get me Dawn was there, and she spoke to her sister on the phone before they showed up. Her sister told her that they'd gotten two Owl Posts that afternoon."

"They got Owl Posts?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"Yeah. One of the letters was from the Ministry - but Dawn didn't get a chance to tell me who the other letter was from before I left. And in _this_ letter I got from her today she said that something exciting was happening, but that she couldn't talk about it in the letter. That someone _told_ her it wasn't safe to, though she didn't say who told her that," Harry told them. "If the Order_ is_ in contact with her sister -"

"But that's impossible," Hermione said with another shake of her head. "I mean - how can she _really_ be The Slayer?"

"You didn't see her fight Hermione," Harry said, thinking back to what he'd witnessed on Charing Cross Road that night. "I did. Those demons were throwing people around like - like they were nothing but rag dolls. But Buffy took them all out - and did it as if it were the easiest thing in the world to do."

Ron - eating the last of the chocolate he had taken from the refrigerator - was looking at Harry wide eyed, as if just discovering something he'd always imagined had finally just come true, before changing to a look of slight confusion. "The Slayer's name is _Buffy?_" he asked incredulously.

"Well, I _still_ think the whole idea of a slayer is quite ridiculous really," Hermione said in an authoritative tone. "I mean honestly, _one girl_ chosen to fight all the evil creatures of the world? How is she supposed to do that all by herself? It's completely impractical!"

"What else did Fred and George say about The Slayer?" Harry asked, still focused on the more interesting matter at hand.

"Only that Dumbledore wanted her help - wants her as an ally, like with the foreign wizards he's been bringing in on the Order's side this past year," Hermione explained.

Harry again remembered what he'd seen Buffy do to those demons on Charing Cross Road. If she and her friends became an allies in the fight against Voldemort . . . .

The Chosen One was supposed to protect the world from all manner of evil creatures; could maybe _she _be the one who could actually stop Voldemort?

Maybe he wouldn't have to become a murder after all . . . or just another of Voldemort's many victims.

"Hey, what's this?" Ron asked, interrupting Harry's train of thought. Ron was now standing by the waste-paper basket, where he had gone to throw away his empty candy wrappers and Butterbeer bottles. He was not throwing his trash away, however, but had instead pulled out Harry's Order of Merlin medal from the basket and was now examining it with great interest.

"Oh, that," Harry said with distain. "Fudge gave it to me today; 'For honor and bravery in alerting the world to the return of a great foe' - or some such rubbish," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Really?" Ron said, sounding rather suspicious. "This is an Order of Merlin - First Class. It's a pretty big deal getting one," he said.

"Well Fudge probably figured it would make himself look good or something," Harry said off-handedly. "He's been being a real nuisance ever since I got here - always checking on me, telling me that if there's anything I need he'll get it for me. As if he really cared or something, and hadn't just spent the last year trying to have me expelled," Harry groused, venting more of his frustration of the past few days.

"Hm. I would think Hermione and I could have been given one too, considering that we were with you when that all happened," Ron noted mildly, looking at Harry with a slightly envious look.

Harry could only gape at his best friend, completely floored. Of all the -! Here he was, unable to make even the smallest decisions about his own life it seemed like sometimes, and all Ron was upset about was that he hadn't been given something as silly as a medal!

"Oh Ron, honestly! Harry's right that Fudge probably just gave it to him to make himself look good!" Hermione exclaimed. "Even your father's said how much trouble Fudge is in because of the Ministry's denial that Vol - Voldemort was actually back!"

"Look, if you want the medal Ron, it's yours. That's why it was in the trash - because _I _certainly don't want it!" Harry said, still not quite believing the ridiculousness of this whole situation, that Ron could actually be feeling jealous about something like this. True, he hadn't told either of his best friends about the prophecy, but that didn't stop Harry from feeling somewhat resentful that Ron was acting like Harry's situation in all of this was something to be envied.

Ron continued to look at the medal quietly . . . just as a loud knock sounded on the main door - which flew open a second later, and in walked Professor Dumbledore, followed by Fudge and Arthur Weasley. Fudge was talking heatedly yet nervously, while Dumbledore was acting quite calm as they all walked in.

"Dumbledore, you know I think its best! Why can't he just -!"

"Ah! Here you all are," Mr. Weasley said, noting Ron and Hermione were in the room as well.

"Harry. I've heard you've been treated quite well since you've been here?" Professor Dumbledore asked Harry with a smile as he came over to him.

"Uh, yes," Harry said.

"Good, that's good." He turned, finally looking back at Fudge. "I'm sure Harry is quite grateful for the safe guard you've given him the past few days Cornelius, truly. But he should resume as normal a life as possible."

"Albus, I do not see why the boy can't just remain here - he will be much safer under guard here, and he wouldn't end up in the thick of trouble again - like what happened on Charing Cross Road!"

"I promise you Cornelius, Harry will be quite safe at the Burrow with Arthur and Molly. And I'll be looking in on him from time to time myself. It won't be that long - he'll be returning to Hogwarts in little more than a month."

"And what we discussed about that," Fudge stated. "Remember what I said about the parents of the students feeling much safer if -"

"Yes, yes, I will give you all the information you need when I see you again before term starts, I promise you. I too think it's as good a proposal as any for the time being."

Fudge - after taking a moment - nodded his head slowly, though he still looked as if he didn't want to let Harry out of the building. "Well, I suppose . . ."

"Good! That's settled then!" Dumbledore interrupted brightly. "Thank you for your help Cornelius. We shall be out of your way, just as soon as Harry has gathered his belongings. I'm sure you have more urgent business to attend to, so we won't keep you from it any longer."

It was an obvious dismissal, and Fudge knew it. For a moment he looked rather defiant - as if he would refuse to leave, before he turned on his heel, and stormed out of the room.

Before either Harry, Ron or Hermione could question what Dumbledore had agreed with Fudge to about, the Professor turned back to Harry. "I'm assuming you haven't had a chance to pack your belongings yet?"

Harry shook his head. "Uh, no I haven't."

"Well, I'll come with you then, as I'm sure there are few questions you have to ask me," he said with a smile. "Come along. Arthur, could you please tell Alastor we'll be down in a few minutes?"

"Certainly. Ron, Hermione, come along, we'll wait outside," Mr. Weasley said, as Harry and Dumbledore went into the bedroom to collect Harry's belongings.

* * *

It had been almost a month since Harry had last seen or spoken to Professor Dumbledore. It had also been the same night that Sirius had died and Harry had learned of the reason that Voldemort had killed Harry's parents and had tried to kill Harry himself. Standing there with him now, Harry noted that he appeared much older and slightly more tired looking than Harry had remembered. 

He had almost been desperate to talk to the headmaster the past week - and now, facing him, Harry really didn't really know where to begin.

"Um -," Harry said awkwardly, and headed to start gathering his belongings. "It shouldn't take me that long to - um, pack my stuff -" he said, picking up his invisibility cloak from where it lay half-out of his trunk to fold it back up and put it inside, but Dumbledore spoke up.

"Leave out your invisibility cloak Harry," he told him. "I think it would be best, in fact, that you keep it on you at all times. There's no telling when you might have to use it to escape, or just to hide and keep safe," Dumbledore said seriously.

Harry looked at him for a moment, and then took his cloak out of the trunk. "All right," he said, placing it on the bed, and began gathering some of his other clothes instead.

"So Harry, have you had any questions from Fudge or anyone else from the Ministry about what happened in the Department of Mysteries?" Dumbledore asked him.

Harry shook his head. "No sir. Not really. I - I mean, don't they already know what it was all about anyway?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No I don't believe they do - not really. And we've been rather fortunate there hasn't been a huge leak about where the focus of what happened that night has been since the incident was spread over the entire Department of Mysteries, and not just about the hall of prophecies specifically. The captured Death Eaters refused to speak about what, exactly, they had been looking for."

"Because of Voldemort," Harry guessed.

Dumbledore nodded. "I doubt Lucius Malfoy wishes to get on his master's bad side anymore than he already has. There have been whispers about what they were there for, but no one has any conclusive proof - especially about what the prophecy may have said."

"So no one really knows what the whole thing said," Harry stated. "Especially because it smashed."

"As of now? Only three people really _know_ what it says - you, I and Professor Trelawney. There are probably some people who have guessed, but no one can really prove anything, which is why I'd like to think there hasn't been a bigger leak about it. With the demons joining forces in even greater numbers than they did the first time - well, the focus has been on that more than anything lately."

Harry thought for a moment. "But you're saying there has been whispers about it sir? That some people might have guessed what the prophecy said?"

"Well, not about the second part of it - as I said, only you, I and Professor Trelawney know that. That hasn't changed. It's the first part of it - the reason Voldemort attacked you and your parents that night - which some people appear to have guessed about. But, again, as I've said - no one really _knows._" He paused for a moment, then said, "Including, may I say, your friends."

"You think I should tell Ron and Hermione? About the prophecy and what it really says, I mean?" Harry asked, rather surprised. Ron and Hermione, of course, had been there that night along with Ginny, Luna and Neville. So they already knew that it had been a prophecy that the Death Eaters had been there to get.

"Well, it is up to you, but yes, I do," Dumbledore said firmly. "You trust them with you life as I well know - and they would never betray the information. Information is power Harry - and, as far as the prophecy goes - we have an advantage over Voldemort in that we know the specifics of it and he does not." He leaned forward a bit. "Also, the weight of it is not something you should try and carry alone Harry," he said gently.

Harry looked at him a moment, but said nothing.

"Those you trust can help you Harry, even with this."

Harry just looked at him for a moment longer, before turning back to gathering his things. "I don't think I'm ready to tell them just yet," Harry said quietly. "But I'll tell them. They _should_ know - you're right." It was Ron and Hermione's reactions to the news he was most worried about. How would they react to the idea that Harry either had to kill someone, else be killed himself?

Even he didn't know how he felt about that idea yet.

The room was quite for a few moments, as Harry continued to - rather slowly now - to pack his things.

"I guess you've heard," Dumbledore said breaking the pause, still in that quite tone of his, "that Sirius has been cleared of all charges against him?"

"Yes, Fudge told me the first night I got here," Harry said.

"Yes, well, we found a copy of his will, and he's left everything to you."

Harry looked up again, frowning slightly. "To me?"

"Yes. You now have more gold to go along with the account you already have at Gringotts. And Hagrid has taken Buckbeak back to Hogwarts to care for him. I hope you don't mind I gave him permission to do that?"

"No, I don't mind. Fudge won't try and kill him again though will he?"

Dumbledore smiled warily. "He was only driven to the first time in order to please Lucius Malfoy - who I'm sure Fudge is not so eager to impress anymore."

Harry couldn't help but also smile at the knowledge that Lucius Malfoy was now being held as a prisoner in Azkaban. "Then tell Hagrid for me that Buckbeak is completely his again. I know he'll take perfect care of him."

Dumbledore nodded, pleased. "Good, good. There are two other important things as well; first, Sirius also left Grimmauld Place to you."

Harry gave a swallow as he felt his chest tighten - after everything that had happened, he couldn't really wrap his mind around the idea that he now owned Sirius' house. He hadn't even been back to the place since before Sirius had died. "The - the order can keep using it for their headquarters. I - I really don't want it," Harry said, rather brokenly. "In fact, I really would rather not have to go back there at all anymore."

"Well, unfortunately, that is the place I'm taking you to tonight," Dumbledore said gently. "I'm sorry Harry," he said holding up one hand to stay off the protest Harry was about to make. "It should only be for one night however, and you can then go to the Burrow with Ron and the rest of his family sometime tomorrow."

"Why can't I just go to the Burrow tonight?" He really didn't want to go back to Grimmauld Place, where Sirius had had to spend so much time wandering around the big house with only his prejudice Muggle hating mother's portrait and the just as disgusting little house elf Kreacher for company.

"Arthur and Molly don't mind having you there of course, it's mainly just a question of extra security that will be needed there - and that won't be ready until late tomorrow at the earliest."

Harry sighed, dejected. He didn't want to be an inconvenience to the Weasleys, and it would - hopefully - only be for one night. "What was the second thing?"

"The second thing is - Kreacher. He's yours now too."

"Well, I don't want _him_ either!" Harry said furiously, throwing some of his old jeans into his trunk.

"I thought as much, but it would be unwise to free him as you well know."

Harry pursed his lips together. Yes, unfortunately he _did_ know.

"If I may say - you could send him to work at Hogwarts - in the kitchen with the other House Elves. By Sirius' Will you're his master now, so he'll listen if you order him to."

The Hogwarts kitchens. Dobby was there - he could possibly keep an eye on Kreacher, and tell Harry and Dumbledore if the sneaky little elf was up to anything.

"Okay, I'll tell him to go there the minute I see him."

Dumbledore gave a nod. "Good," he said, and then looked at Harry with a slightly critical eye. "Tell me Harry - has your scar hurt at all again since that night you wrote me about?"

Harry glanced up and shook his head. "No. It's only been just that once, after what happened on Charing Cross. It didn't even hurt after the other attack just recently."

"I thought as much. Voldemort's control slipped for a moment that night, and that's why your scar began hurting as it did."

"His control slipped? What do you mean?"

"I'll bet your scar hasn't felt any pain since that night at the Department of Mysteries, correct? With the exception of that first raid a few nights ago of course."

Harry nodded. "I kind of thought it would be hurting all the time now, what with Voldemort back and all."

Dumbledore nodded. "It more than likely would, but hasn't because the Dark Lord has probably been using Occlumency techniques against you - since you being privy to _his_ thoughts as he would be to yours would not be a wise thing at the moment."

Harry's brow knitted in slight confusion. "But if he's using Occlumency against me -"

"- why did your scar burst into pain that night," Dumbledore finished for him. "From what I have deduced, Voldemort received a rather nasty shock after that raid; something he hadn't foreseen or counted on at all. And that's what you felt - his anger at that surprise."

"What surprised him?" Harry asked.

"My best deduction would be that it was the conformation of the existence of someone who - until that moment - he only believed to be nothing more than a myth."

It took Harry less than a second to guess to whom Dumbledore was referring to. "The Slayer," Harry stated.

Dumbledore smiled. "Yes. She arrived at the most inopportune moment, it seemed, and he lost a good many of his first demon recruits to her skillful dispatchment of them."

"_Have_ you been in contact with The Slayer Professor?" Harry asked, as he quickly added the last of his items into his trunk, but leaving out his invisibility cloak as he'd been instructed to, and instead folded it up and stuffed it into one of his jacket pockets. "I was with her sister when they got two Owl Posts, and Ron told me Fred and George said -?"

"Yes, I have spoken with The Slayer," he said, his eyes twinkling. "Quite a lovely young woman - and I very much enjoy the novel way she has of speaking; I never knew there were so many ways to make a pun out of something," he noted as he stood up. "But are you all packed then? Good. I'll see you out to meet Alastor and the others, and then I must go and run an errand."

"You're leaving again?" Harry asked warily. After all this time waiting as patiently as he could to get a few of the answers he wanted, and Dumbledore was just going to take off again?

Dumbledore obviously noticed the look on his face, and gave him a reassuring look in return. "Yes, but don't worry - there will be time for many more questions and answers later tonight, I assure you of that."

* * *

Grimmauld Place almost resembled Platform 9¾ during the start of first term when Harry, Ron, Hermione, Alastor Moody and Mr. Weasley finally arrived, Dumbledore having Disapperated to perform whatever errand he had to before they'd left the Ministry. What looked to be sixty or more people were in the hall, moving in and out of the kitchen and the sitting room, talking with each other in groups, creating a low din of voices. 

"What's going on?" Harry asked as they began to try and press forward through the rather tight throng of people. He felt many of the eyes of the people in the room turning his way, staring at him curiously as he tried to get by.

Ron shook his head. "I've no idea." Harry looked over at Hermione, but she shook her head in a negative gesture as well.

"Come on everyone," Mr. Weasley said, gesturing them forward. "We might be a little late - I didn't expect this many people to be here so soon," he said, his brow furrowing.

"Is there an Order meeting tonight or something?" Harry asked, unable to keep from bumping into people as he tried to squeeze by them. Most of them didn't seem to mind and gave Harry a bright smile and hello, clearly recognizing him.

Mr. Weasley didn't answer Harry's question, as he finally spotted someone in the crowed of people.

"Oh! There's Molly. Molly!" He called out to his wife, who was moving in the other direction down the hall, but turned around at the call of her name. "Molly! We're back!"

Mrs. Weasley was already making her way over to her husband, and gave Harry a motherly hug as soon as she reached them. "Harry dear! How are you? Are you alright?" She hadn't changed very much since the last time Harry had seen her - still looking rather paler that she normally did, as she had last year.

"I'm fine, thanks," Harry said, rather tiredly however, already feeling knackered.

Mrs. Weasley patted his cheek affectionately. "Good, good. Well, take your things upstairs and get settled. Dinner will be served soon, before the meeting officially begins of course."

"So there_ is_ a meeting tonight," Ron stated, glancing back and forth between his parents.

"Yes there is," Mrs. Weasley said shortly. "And I'm sure Fred and George will tell you all about it, even though I've told them time and again not to," she noted with disapproval. "Now help Harry get his things settled upstairs - I need to find some things to transfigure into more chairs to put in the kitchen." She gave her husband a haggard look. "We've already run out, and news is there are even _more_ people coming here tonight than everyone first thought. And I don't know if we have enough food for them all -"

"Don't worry Molly," Mr. Weasley said, laying a hand gently on her shoulder. "I'll take care of the chairs, you see about dinner."

Mrs. Weasley gave her husband a grateful look, and then turned back to Ron, Harry and Hermione as he headed off into the crowed. "Well. You three get upstairs - dinner will hopefully be ready soon," she told them, hurrying back towards the kitchen, leaving the three of them standing in the hall.

"I wonder what could be so important that so many Order members from everywhere are coming here?" Hermione asked, as they leaned there heads closer together so they could hear each other.

"Well, let's go find Fred and George," Ron said, picking up one end of Harry's trunk. "Mum's right - they'll tell us what going on."

As Ron and Hermione helped Harry carry his things up to the room he and Ron had shared last time, Harry felt an empty feeling wash over him. From what he could see, the place looked much cleaner since the last time he had been there.

When Sirius had been alive.

Harry angrily pushed the thought to the back of his mind, as he and the others entered the room -

- and Fred and George were waiting there when they walked in, pouncing on Harry the second he walked inside the room, in greeting.

"Hey Harry!" Fred chirped. "How -"

" - are you doing?" George continued. "Fudge didn't drive you -"

" - stark raving mad, did he?" Fred finished.

Harry gave the twins a short grin. "I'm alright and yes he did."

There was a laugh. "We all figured as much," a female voice spoke up. It was Ginny, who was standing just behind her brothers. "Hi Harry," she said with a smile. She'd gotten slightly taller since he'd last seen her, her long red hair pulled back in a ponytail.

"Hey Ginny."

"So what's with all the people downstairs?" Ron asked them, sitting down on his bed, after he and Harry placed Harry's trunk at the foot of the other twin bed.

"Yeah, your mum said there was some big meeting tonight," Hermione said. "What's happened?"

Fred and George glanced at each other, and then grinned. "It's because someone really important is coming here tonight," Fred said.

Hermione, Ron and Harry all glanced at each other, confused. All that fuss downstairs for one person? "Well, who is it?" Hermione asked.

Instead of telling them, however, the twins just kept smiling. "Take a guess," they said together.

Harry sighed and flopped back on the second bed in the room and looked at the ceiling. "I'm really not in the mood for guesses right now," he said tiredly.

"Do you know who it is Ginny? You've been here same as them all day," Ron asked his sister.

"No," Ginny said. "And _they_ wouldn't tell me either," she said, obviously indicating Fred and George. "They said I had to wait till all of you got back. It's been like this for over two hours now, since before mum brought us over from the Burrow."

"Would you two just tell us already," Hermione groused, sounding more than perturbed. She spoke in the same tone of voice Harry had heard her use with the twins before last year when - as a prefect - she had stepped in to stop them from using First Years as test subjects for the products for their joke shop. Her arms were folded, and her lips pressed together in annoyance.

Fred and George glanced at each other - it was obvious no one the room was going to attempt to make even one half-hearted guess at who the mystery person was. "Okay fine, ruin our fun," Fred sighed. "You don't have to give us that 'prefect' look of yours Hermione."

"Yeah, got that same glare from you quite enough last year," George said evenly.

"So who is it then?" Ginny asked.

The twins both grinned, looking quite pleased with themselves - as they exclaimed together, "The _Slayer!_"

Harry sat up so fast from where he'd been laying down on the bed that his glasses slipped down off his nose. Ron completely jumped up from where he was sitting next to Ginny at the bombshell Fred and George had just dropped. Ginny, too, looked just as floored as her brother, and even Hermione was blinking at Fred and George as if she couldn't fully comprehend what they'd just said.

"The Slayer is coming _here?_" Ron exclaimed, flabbergasted.

"Yes! Tonight, along with some of her own allies, from what we've been told," George informed them, clearly enjoying their surprise. "Dumbledore set up a meeting with her and the Watcher's Council, to formally meet the Order."

"That's what the meeting last night was about," Fred said, enjoying himself just as much as his brother appeared to be. "She and her allies have agreed to an alliance with the Order, and are coming here - tonight - to talk about more specifics."

"Seems once it was confirmed The Slayer was coming tonight, every witch and wizard in the Order decided to come to tonight's meeting," George told them, knowingly. "Bill and Charlie are already here, and lots more from other countries are showing up too."

The look on Ron's face looked to be a cross between fear and anticipation. Hermione was scowling, as if the news that The Slayer actually did exist was still too unbelievable to fully accept.

However, all Harry himself could focus on was the news that Buffy was bringing some of her allies along with her tonight. He knew that one of them would probably be Mr. Giles, since he was the head of the Watcher's Council of course. But other allies . . . did that mean Willow and Xander?

And - more importantly - did that also mean that Dawn would be coming as well? Would he really get to see her again so soon?

The hope that he would made his heart give a pleasant feeling thump.

"Harry, you were on Charing Cross Road when she showed up the first time. Did you see her?" George asked him.

Harry blinked. "Uh, yeah. I, well, I saw her before that actually."

"Really?" Ginny asked surprised. "Where?"

However, Ron spoke up before Harry had a chance to say anything. "He was on a date with The Slayer's sister at the time," Ron said with a slight smirk, having finally shaken off some of his stupefication from the news that the slayer would be coming over that night.

It was now Fred and George's turn to look surprised at a revelation, both of their mouths dropping open - at the same moment - in disbelief.

"You went out with the _sister_ of the Vampire Slayer?" Ginny asked, looking even more stunned than she had at the news that the slayer herself was coming to Grimmauld Place that night.

Harry felt a sheepish grin beginning to spread on his face. "Uh, yeah, I did. I mean, I met her almost two weeks ago, but didn't meet her sister until that afternoon - before the raid. I didn't know her sister was The Slayer till that night though. Dawn was with me on Charing Cross Road that night, and her sister came looking for her when she heard what was going on there."

"Dawn?" Fred asked, finally finding his voice.

"The Slayer's sister. Her name is Dawn," Harry explained.

"And The Slayer's name is _Buffy," _Ron informed them with a grin. He was obviously enjoying being able to give his brothers even more information about The Slayer than they had.

_"Buffy?"_ Ginny repeated, her nose wrinkling slightly. "You sure that's not just short form for anything? Like Elizabeth?"

Harry shook his head. "No. Dawn told me it's not."

"So The Slayer's sister is a witch?" George asked.

"No she a Muggle," Harry informed them - and told them the whole story that he'd told to Ron and Hermione earlier; about how he and Dawn had first met, and about how they'd ended up on Charing Cross Road that night.

"And so you've been dating her for almost two weeks now, and didn't tell us? Sly Harry! _Very_ sly!" George chuckled, waggling his eyebrows at Harry after he'd finished his story.

Before Harry could correct George about that night having actually been he and Dawn's first (and still unofficial) date, Mrs. Weasley's voice called out from the first floor. "Ron! Harry! Everyone! Come and eat! Dinner's ready!"

* * *

The downstairs area seemed even more crowed by the time Harry and the others entered the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley was scuttling about between people, using her wand to move and place even more food on the already covered table, while Mr. Weasley talked and chatted with people, and helped those who wish to sit down to find a seat. 

As in the hall, Harry barely recognized anyone there, though everyone seemed to take particular note of him, some even stopping him to greet him and shake his hand. Harry did notice Ron's older brothers among the large group of people, as well as Kinglesy Shacklebolt. He spotted Remus Lupin on the other side of the room, talking to Tonks, both of whom waved at Harry when they spotted him.

"Here mate, I got us both a plate," Ron said, pushing his way over to Harry. He had entered the throng of people who were still crowded around the main table the minute he'd entered the kitchen, and now held a plate heaped with food out to Harry.

Harry took the plate and looked around. "Is there anywhere to sit?"

"I don't think so," Fred said as he and George came up to them, already eating some of the corn beef pilled high on his plate.

In the end, they all ended up sitting on the floor, against one of the walls on the far side of the room. Hermione and Ginny came to join them a short while later, choosing to wait to fix their own plates after the crowd by the table had thinned a little.

Lupin and Tonks came over to say hello and catch up a bit. It was from Lupin that Harry learned that Kreacher was hiding up in Sirius' mother's bedroom, and Harry made a mental note to go up to the room and order him off to Hogwarts before the night was over.

At one point, Harry's eyes narrowed when he caught site of Snape moving through the crowd of people. He knew Dumbledore had said repeatedly that Snape could be trusted, but Harry would never forgive Snape for the way he had treated Sirius last year. Part of him knew that it was irrational to blame Snape for what had happened to Sirius, but Harry knew that Snape's malicious comments about how Sirius could only stay here at Grimmauld Place - and not do anything - had probably motivated his Godfather to leave for the Department of Mysteries that night.

That was not something Harry was ever going to forgive Snape for, no matter how much Dumbledore said he trusted the man.

Just as dinner seemed to be winding down a little over an hour later, with all the used plates being collected for washing, there was a commotion by the kitchen door.

"What's going on?" Hermione wondered aloud as they all stood up to try and get a better look.

A tall, dark haired wizard pushed himself through the people nearest the door, looking very excitable. "She's here!" he exclaimed. "She's here!"

A jolt went through the room, and Harry felt his stomach do a flip. He knew the excitable wizard had meant that The Slayer had just arrived - but _his _mind was on another person who he hoped was with her.

Suddenly, there was a sound of something breaking in the hall, and with that, Sirius's mother's portrait - which had been miraculously quiet all this time - began to scream at the top of her voice -

"MUGGLES! _MUGGLES_ _IN THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS!_ THE SHAME! THE DEFILEMENT! OUT! OUT OF MY HOUSE! BLOOD-TRAITERS, MUDBLOODS, AND NOW _MUGGLES!_ DEFILEMENT! DEFILEMENT!"

"Well, I've never been insulted by a _painting_ before. At least, I _think_ it was insulting us," Harry heard Buffy quip as the crowd of people by the door parted to let her enter the kitchen, lead by Professor Dumbledore; her friends and her sister following in right behind her.

A huge grin spread across Harry's face at the sight of Dawn, who was busy looking back into the hall where Sirius' mother's portrait was still screaming about muggles being in the house. "I'm _really_ sorry - I didn't even _see_ that vase," she was saying, a slightly embarrassed look on her face.

"It's quite alright Miss Summers. Truly," Dumbledore reassured her. "Please everyone, have some food if you wish - there's plenty of it," he said, gesturing towards the main table where all of the leftover food was still laid out.

It was only then that Harry noticed that Giles, Willow, and Xander weren't the only ones who'd come with Dawn and Buffy. Following behind them were six more people - one boy and five girls whom Harry didn't know at all. The boy had brownish-blonde hair and looked to be older than Harry, but a year or two younger than Xander. One of the girls, who had thick dark hair and dark almond-shaped eyes, looked to be around the same age as Buffy. There was also a smug looking brown-haired girl, standing rather close to Willow as she spoke to her, who looked around the same age as Fred and George.

The three remaining girls all looked to be around Harry's own age: there was a confident looking redhead; a perky looking, freckled faced brown-haired girl; and a pretty, rather quiet-looking black girl.

"Great - I'm starved!" the dark-haired girl exclaimed heading right for the table of food. Xander, the three younger girls, and the other boy headed over to the table of food as well, right behind her.

"Harry!" Dawn exclaimed with an enthusiastic wave as she spotted him on the other side of the room. She broke away from her sister and the others, and made her way quickly over to him.

Harry came forward to meet her just as she reached him, and she threw her arms around him in a warm hug. Her hair smelled like roses and jasmine he noted as he hugged her back, and Harry felt himself grow slightly warm at the thought. He heard Ron, Fred and George all giving quiet snickers behind him, but he didn't care. Dawn was here, and for the moment, that was all that mattered to him.

"How are you?" she asked as she pulled back to look at him with a huge grin of her own. "Miller didn't drive you completely crazy or anything did he?"

Harry gave a wry chuckle. "No, Fudge was too busy doing that to me _for_ him."

Dawn laughed. "Oh Harry, I have so much to -"

The sound of someone loudly and deliberately clearing their throat caught both his and Dawn's attention, and Harry turned to see a phalanx of his friends standing just behind them - Ron wearing a highly amused smirk on his face.

"Harry, aren't you going to introduce us?" George asked, wearing the same type of smile as Ron and giving Harry a wink.

Harry refrained from rolling his eyes at their not-at-all subtle display. "Dawn, this is George, Fred, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Everyone, this is Dawn Summers," he said, introducing everybody in turn.

They all exchanged pleasant greetings, except for Ron who skipped right to what he felt was the important part of who Dawn was. "So are you really the sister of the Vampire Slayer?" he asked her directly, after the first bit of hellos had been said.

Dawn blinked at the question, and Harry thought he saw what looked to be a slightly annoyed expression cross her face for a second. "Uh yeah," she said in a slightly irked tone. "I am. Buffy's over there." She pointed over to where Buffy stood surrounded by almost every member of the Order, saying hello to everyone who was introduced to her. Harry saw Mr. Weasley in the tight crowd, and Ron's dad looked to be trying to closely examine the hand Buffy had just given him to shake.

"Well come on then, let's go meet her," George said, taking off without a backwards glance, Fred following right behind him.

"Come on mate," Ron said to Harry as he too began to follow after his two brothers.

Harry glanced at Dawn, who had a rather deadpan look on her face as she glanced back at him - as if she were rather used to being in her sister's shadow, and wasn't surprised when it seemed to be happening again among Harry's friends. She had mentioned in their talks before about sometimes wishing she could be seen more than just "Buffy's Little Sister," and that had been even before Harry had discovered that Buffy was The Slayer.

Having someone mythical like the Vampire Slayer as your sister had to mean Dawn was pushed into the shadow a lot more often than not.

Harry gave Dawn a knowing grin. "That's okay. I've already met her."

Understanding his meaning, Dawn gave him a smile back that gave him that warm feeling again.

Ron looked slightly taken aback, but then just shrugged. "Okay. Come on guys," he said to Hermione and Ginny; the latter giving Harry a small, rather searching look before following her brother and Hermione.

Harry cleared he throat. "So I - I got your letter."

Dawn chuckled. "Yeah, never sent mail by Owl before. But it was _way_ cool. I really want an Owl of my own now."

"Well, you could get one," Harry told her. "But when you go off to school I don't know if they'd let you keep and Owl there. Although - are you still going to Italy to school, or did you really find a way out of it?" he asked.

Dawn smiled brightly - looking completely giddy all of the sudden. "That's what I wanted to tell you! It's not 100 percent official _yet_, but yeah it does look like I'm not going to be going to school in Italy after all!" she explained excitedly.

"Well, that's great!" Harry said truly happy for her. He knew how much going away from all her friends and family to school had worried and bothered her. "So, where you are you going to go to school? Here in England?"

"Actually - it's _so_ weird," Dawn said tucking some of her hair behind one ear, the giddy look still on her face. "And you're like _never_ going to -"

Just then, Professor Dumbledore tapped the side of a glass goblet that was on the main table with his wand as he spoke up, interrupting everyone, so as to get their attention. "Everyone, everyone. There will be more time for talking with Miss Summers and - oh, pardon me, Buffy," - Dumbledore corrected as Buffy gave him a raised eyebrow look - "There will be time to become more personally acquainted with _Buffy_ and her companions later on. We should spend some time, at least for a bit, about the reason we are all here I should think," he said with a smile. "So if everyone will just find a seat -"

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "Right. Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Harry - why don't you take Miss Summers' sister and -" she looked over at the three girls who appeared to be the same age as them - "her friends upstairs. You can show them around, and take some food along with you -"

"But mum!" Ron and Ginny, in unison, said in protest.

"No buts!" Mrs. Weasley said firmly as she began to try and direct them all out of the room.

Harry remembered how when this had happened last year Sirius has intervened for him. Now, he knew was going to have to do it himself - there was no way he was going to be sent from the room as if he were still just some little boy!

Dawn was quiet, but was giving her sister a look that clearly said Buffy better not even _think_ of trying to send her from the room.

The three other girls didn't say anything either, but all looked terribly amused by the situation as they continued to stand exactly where they were, eating the grapes and other fruit they had been munching on since they'd first arrived.

Before Harry - or anyone else - could voice another objection however, Buffy spoke up. "Actually ma'am," she said to Mrs. Weasley. "Dawn, Vi, April and Kira can all stay here. I've learned not to try and keep things such as this from Dawn anymore," she confessed, giving Dawn a knowing look and smile. "And the others are actually part of why we're here in the first place. So they _have_ to stay."

"What - what do you mean they're a part of it?" Mrs. Weasley asked in confused surprise at Buffy's firm tone that Dawn and the other girls be allowed to remain in the room.

Buffy smiled, and pointed at each of the three girls - as well as the other two girls who come with them - in turn, as she introduced them. "Everyone, this is Kennedy Montgomery -"

"Hey," said the brown haired girl who was still standing close to Willow.

"- April Dean" - the pretty black girl gave a nod in greeting - "Violetta Crawford -"

"Call me Vi, please," the redheaded girl noted pleasantly as she popped a grape in her mouth.

"- Kira Bradley -"

"Hi!" the freckled face brown-haired girl said with a perky wave.

"- and Faith Lehane."

"'Sup!" the dark haired girl said around the mouthful of food she was paying much more attention to than anything else at the moment.

"And they're -"

But before Buffy could continue, there was the sound of someone - loudly and insistently clearing their throat. It was the young man who had also come with Buffy and the others. Buffy glanced at him, and he gave he a look that clearly said _Aren't you forgetting something?_

Buffy rolled her eyes. "And this is Andrew," she said, jerking a thumb in the boy's direction.

Andrew waved at everyone. "Hello, new magical friends!" he said brightly.

"And they're part of it," Buffy continued, a smile spreading across her face, "Because they're all slayers - like me."

For a long moment, no one spoke, as everyone just stared opened mouth at the revelation.

The sound of Andrew clearing his throat again broke everyone out of their shock.

Buffy glance over at Andrew, exasperated, and rolled her eyes again. "All except Andrew, I mean."

* * *

After the meeting was over, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George sat talking with Dawn about the things she'd experienced when growing up on the Hellmouth. Since Dawn and the other girls their own age had been allowed to stay, Mr. Weasley has intervened for Harry and the others with his wife, and they had been allowed to remain as well. ("If The Slayer is allowing her own sister to stay, then there's really no harm in it Molly," he'd argued.) 

After the first initial revelation that there was now more than one slayer in the world, Giles had thought it best to bring the members of the Order up to speed on the origin of The Slayer - and Andrew, (who had begged in a way that had made Buffy comment that the only way to stop him from being annoying and pouty later was to give him what he wanted), was the one who had given them the history:

"Gather round new magical-people friends," Andrew had begun with bright enthusiasm. "For an extraordinary tale I like to call: _The Slayer of The Vampyrs."_

Here, he'd raised one hand to his chin, which he'd stoked, as if deeply contemplating what he had just said.

Harry had had to purse his lips together, trying desperately to suppress the laughter that had been making its way through him. Next to him, Ron hadn't had as much luck holding back his laughter, and had given a barely concealed snort, as had Fred and George. Lupin had place one hand over his mouth trying to hide his amused smile, and even Dumbledore's eyes had been twinkling with mirth. In fact, out of all the "new magical-people friends" in the room, only Snape had looked completely unamused.

"Oh good lord," Giles had muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose, while Buffy had just given Andrew another pointed look.

Andrew, obviously taking those actions as a cue to get on with it, had cleared his throat and continued:

"Uh, many eons ago, on the Dark Continent, three powerful elders decided to fight evil with a taste of its own _sinistro_," he'd explained, walking slowly around the table as he spoke, and now stopping behind where one of the slayers - Kira - was sitting. He'd placed his hands on her shoulders as he'd continued. "They took a young girl, like this one. And invoking the strongest magicks they could summon, imbued her with the power of a demon," - here, he gave Kira two makeshift horns with his crooked forefingers, "- and thus, the first Slayer of The Vampyrs was born."

Moving away from Kira he'd continued to make his way around the table, clearly caught up in the story. "But alas," he noted. "The existence of a slayer is often brutal and short-lived. And the 'primitive,' or the 'First Slayer', as some call her, boasted no exception. However, the wise elders had foreseen the inevitability of her death, and devised a way for her power to live on, passing from one girl to the next. There are many potentials, as we experts -" he'd gestured between himself and Mr. Giles, "- like to call them. All of them experiencing vivid dreams, some say nightmares, of the heroics of past slayers. But only one can be chosen."

Xander had given him a short pat on the back when he was done and had once again resumed his seat. "That was good," he'd said approvingly, causing Andrew to beam.

"'In every generation, there is a Chosen One,'" Lupin had recited, thoughtfully.

Giles had nodded. "Yes. Out of hundreds, sometimes maybe thousands of potentials, per generation."

"And they gave her the power of a _demon_? _This_ is why The Slayer is strong enough to fight them?" Snape had asked, looking as if the very idea repulsed him.

"The strength and power of a _pure_ demon, to be more precise about it," Giles informed him. "All the demons that walk the earth these days are, uh tainted. Hybrids - their power diluted through centuries upon centuries of breeding among, or uh - in the case of vampires - _infecting_ humans. Finding a pure demon in this world is actually more than rare. And the purest and most vicious of them were banished from this world long ago of course."

"What would a pure demon be like?" Kingsley had asked curiously.

Giles, Buffy and her friends all had exchanged glances. "Well, for one, they're bigger," Buffy had noted in a wry voice.

"Also takes over 100 tons of dynamite and TNT to kill one," Xander had said dryly. "That, or a Volcano."

"Okay, but if there's only_ one_ Chosen One, how could all of _them_ be Slayers?" Hermione had interrupted, gesturing towards Faith, Vi, April and Kennedy.

At this question, Buffy and her friends launched into the story of what had caused an initial split in the slayer line - Buffy's death and resurrection by CPR (the concept of which had to be explained to the non muggle-borns - and most of the half-bloods - in the room, who knew nothing of Muggle medical practices), before moving on to the story of the final battle in the Hellmouth in California, and what had really caused it to close; a massive battle with ancient Vampire demons. And how it had been Buffy's idea to activate _all_ the potential slayers who had been coming from all over the world seeking protection from the evil spirit that had been trying to kill them all, and extinguish the slayer line forever.

It was during the telling of this that had cause a slightly awkward moment had passed between the two groups; when everyone had learned that Willow was - in fact - an Earth Witch. A muggle who practiced what Witches and Wizards like them called Earth magic, and called themselves Wiccans. (Learning that Willow was one had automatically explained some things to Harry that he hadn't understood before - like how she and the others had been able to know exactly where he and Dawn were that night on Charing Cross Raod. She'd obviously had done a spell of some sort to find them.)

Most natural born witches and wizards were more than wary of Earth Magic users. Mostly because those who grew powerful enough to perform the type of complex spells like the one that Willow seemed to have had to do in order to activate all the potentials in the world usually couldn't control that level of power. In the end, the power usually ended up controlling _them _instead and the Wiccan would - more often than not - end up destroy the people around them, and themselves as well.

"That must have been quite a dangerous spell you had to pull off," Snape had noted once the story had finished being told, his gaze locked critically on Willow - and not even bothering to hide his disdain.

Willow had looked quite sheepish at all of the eyes in the room that were looking at her just as critically as Snape was. A small few - such as Lupin - had seemed slightly impressed; others - such as Hermione's - had looked at Willow rather warily.

"Yeah, well she's an incredible person," The Slayer called Kennedy has said with a challenging look on her face. "She's a Goddess."

Snape's eyes had narrowed slightly at Kennedy at this exchange - but he didn't say anymore as the young slayer locked her eyes on him, giving her only a dismissive glance as he turned away again. Harry couldn't help but give a slight grin at the knowledge that Snape had been the one to break the gaze between him and the outspoken slayer first.

Kennedy and Willow were now standing aside and talking with Mrs. Weasley, everyone else mostly giving Willow a wide berth. Snape had been speaking with Dumbledore and Buffy a few feet away, though he would glance over at Willow now and again.

Out of everyone, Snape had seemed the most off-put by the purposed alliance with the slayers and the Watcher's council, though Mrs. Weasley had voiced concern about letting girls who looks so young to put their lives in such danger. Buffy had assured her that fighting evil was what slayers were made for - and that they would be a part of this fight with Voldemort, even if there wasn't an alliance now between the two groups.

"From what I've read and been told about this guy," Buffy had said. "He and the people with him see no problem killing innocent, non-magical people, right? He's not just intent on taking over _your_ world, but my world too - a world we slayers are all sworn to protect. So this is _our_ fight, just as much as it is yours."

"Plus, with the number of demons Voldemort looks to be recruiting this time around, watcher knowledge and slayer strength will be quite helpful to such fight," Dumbledore said with an assuring nod.

It had been decided that the most experienced slayers would come to train in England at the new Watcher's Council headquarters. Construction had already begun on the spot where the remains of the old Watcher's Council had been located. Training would begin as soon as possible, so they could start to help watch and guard along with the Order members who were all doing so already.

Dawn was just finishing relating the story of how Buffy and her friends had had to blow up their old High School in order to defeat a pure snake demon that had once been the mayor of their town, (the story of which had only been eluded to during the meeting earlier, and caused Ron and his brothers to hoot and clap at the idea of actually blowing up one's school), as her sister and Dumbledore headed over to them. Snape was not with them anymore, having moved on to speak with another order member whom Harry recognized as Emmeline Vance.

Harry noted that Ron completely clammed up when he too spotted Buffy nearing them, his eyes now wide and completely fixed on her as she approached. Ron had been acting in awe of Buffy ever since she'd come into the room, and he hadn't had a chance to really meet her after she'd first arrived either. All during the meeting, he'd tried to act like he wasn't just staring at her - which he had been, and he had mostly been singing Buffy's praises since the meeting had ended, much to Hermione's more than obvious annoyance.

"Telling Harry and his friends apocalypse stories, Dawnie?" Buffy asked her sister with a grin, as she and Dumbledore walked up. "How'ya doing Harry?"

"Fine, thanks," Harry said. He too hadn't really had a chance to say hello to her before now.

"Did you _really_ blow up your high school once?" George broke in, looking utterly marveled.

Buffy shrugged. "Well, it was either that, or let our entire senior class get eater by the big ol' demon snake-mayor," she quipped.

_"Wicked!"_ the twins exclaimed together.

"Told you so," Dawn said to the twins smugly, then looked at her sister. "What's up?" she asked.

Buffy gave her sister a quiet smile that - to Harry - seemed to have a touch of sadness to it. "Well, I thought you'd like to know that the final arrangements for everything have just been made."

"Really? Is that it?" Dawn said, suddenly bursting with excitement.

Dumbledore smiled at her. "Yes. I have spoken with Professor Snape and he is willing to come to Hogwarts for the remainder of the summer. He was the last of the four I had to make the request of, and he had agreed."

"Agreed to what?" Harry asked. He looked at Dawn. "What's going on?"

Dawn looked at him, the biggest smile that he'd ever seen on her face in the short time he'd known her. "It's what I wanted to tell you before, but I couldn't because I didn't know if it was really going to happen. But it is! I'm going to go to Hogwarts!"

"What? You're going to Hogwarts?" Harry repeated, completely floored - caught at the moment somewhere between disbelief and confusion.

"But, but she's a muggle!" Hermione exclaimed, just as confused. "How can she go there?" she asked, glancing up at Professor Dumbledore.

"Dawn will be going to Hogwarts," Dumbledore explained calmly, "Because she _is_ a witch, not a Muggle as it was believed."

"But how is she really a witch?" Harry asked after a moment, shaking his head - still unable to really believe it. He looked at Dawn. "You acted like you'd never even _seen_ a wand before when we were in that alley on Charing Cross. How can you be a witch?"

"Well, I honestly didn't know I was a witch until just a few days ago," Dawn explained, still smiling.

"You didn't know? How is that possible?" Hermione asked.

"It was our wacky Hellmouth at work again," Buffy explained as she gave Dawn's hair an affectionate, sisterly stroke. "Apparently, it blocked out Dawn's signal to this world - so she kinda got skipped over it seems."

"Seems that I should have been going to a Wizarding school before now anyway," Dawn told them. "And now I get to!"

"Well from all you've told us about living there, I guess someone being able to do magic isn't that strange a thing, huh?" Harry said thoughtfully, and then chuckled, as he and everyone else looked at Dawn in wonder and surprise. Dawn was going to Hogwarts! It seemed to Harry almost too good to be true!

"Yep. When weird things happened _not_ because of the Hellmouth - well, _those _were the things that were usually more shocking than anything," Buffy said rather faithfully.

Hermione, however, was still looking between Buffy and Dawn, with a confused expression on her face. "Wait a moment. You're saying the Sunnydale Hellmouth blocked her signal? And that's why you never got a letter from any of the magic schools in America?" At their nods, Hermione shook her head. "That can't be right - it doesn't make any sense."

Buffy looked at Hermione with a raised eyebrow; it wasn't even half as intimidating as the look she'd given Harry when she'd thought he'd deliberately brought Dawn into trouble, but it was still rather imposing.

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, finally breaking his gaze from Buffy and speaking, looking rather scandalized that Hermione had actually taken issue with something the Vampire Slayer herself had said.

The attention of everyone in the small group was on her now, and Hermione actually stumbled a little as she said, "I - I mean, from - from what I've read about Dark Nodes they don't block out magic, they actually _enhance_ it - make it more powerful - because they're constantly _drawing_ on that type of energy, and also -"

Harry thought he saw Dumbledore give Hermione an impressive look - as Buffy interrupted her with a slight chuckle. "Wait - you read that in a book?"

"Yes," Hermione said with a frown.

"Well, living on a Hellmouth is rarely a 'by the book' situation," Buffy said with a smile. "You learn that petty quickly after having been fated to die, but still coming back to save the world in the end," she said, referring to the story she and the rest of the Sunnydale people had told about how Buffy had drowned and died because of a prophecy.

It had been a story Harry had taken particular note of.

Ron was now staring at Buffy again, as if she were a mountain of gold galleons that he had just been told was his. "_Wicked,_" he whispered in awe.

Hermione gave Ron a dark look, before tuning back to Dawn. "Aren't you going to be rather behind in everything?" Hermione asked, still not letting up on her questions.

Dawn gave her a half smile. "Yeah, wanna know another funny thing about living on top of a Hellmouth? When some evil entity decides to try and open it and release an ancient vampire army on the world, school gets canceled before the semester ends; and you end up not finishing 10th grade because of that." she explained, then shrugged. "I was behind anyway."

"Miss Summers will be taking special classes for the remainder of the summer - to determine what natural skill level she may already be at, and where the best place for her should be," Dumbledore explained evenly. "Oh it is very unusual of course," he added with a smile, "but Dawn wants to come to Hogwarts to learn, and that alone is reason enough that she should be allowed to attend."

"So when are you going for your placement classes?" Harry asked her.

"August 1st, right?" Dawn asked, looking up and over at Buffy and Dumbledore, the latter of whom nodded.

"Correct."

"I'll be going with you - make sure you get settled in okay before I hafta go, alright?" Buffy told her.

Dawn frowned. "I thought you weren't going anywhere till September?"

"I wasn't, but with the alliance and all now, we're going to have to move things up a bit. Willow and Kennedy are already talking about heading off to South America to look for new slayers there, and Faith's heading back to America tomorrow to fill Robin in on what's going on. So I might as well start finding the ones here and around Europe sooner rather than later. It's okay Dawnie," Buffy said, noting Dawn's darkening look. "I'll be back before you start school officially; and Xander hopes to have the construction of the main building of the new Watcher's Council and the training school for the slayers up by mid October at the latest. I'll come by then for another visit, alright?"

Dawn shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, though Harry could tell she was still slightly less-than-happy. "Sure, okay. It's cool."

"Professor, could I - I mean, could _we_ all go with Dawn? While she's at Hogwarts taking summer classes I mean," Harry asked, pointedly ignored the sound of muffled chuckling that could be heard coming from Fred and George from behind him at the question.

"I'd like to say yes, but I'm afraid not Harry," Dumbledore said with a regretful sake of his head.

"What? Why not?" Harry asked in surprised. He honestly hadn't thought Dumbledore would say no.

"Well, as you know, Hogwarts does not remain open during the summer months. It was though a lot of effort and a slight bending of the rules - which the school's governors are blissfully unaware of as of right now (though they will not be for long) - that I was able to assure Miss Summers could even come herself this early. Not even all of the teaching staff will be there to evaluate her - only the four heads of houses and myself. So having any more students there right now would not be a wise thing."

"Not to mention not all the security measures for the school are in place yet," Kingsley said coming over, having overheard the discussion. "You're safer around here for now Harry."

Harry frowned, but didn't argue. He understood that it was only for safety reasons that he wasn't being allowed to go . . . but Dawn leaving on August 1st meant that he would only see her for three more days - tops - before she'd be gone for a full month.

Dawn seemed to read his thoughts. "So, you want to come along tomorrow?" she asked him. "I mean when I get my wand and stuff?"

"Sure," Harry said. Maybe he could buy her a gift or something before she left for the month.

"We can all go, right?" Hermione asked, looking thoughtful.

Kingsley and Dumbledore exchanged a glance. "I don't see why not," Kingsley said. "Aurors have been all over Diagon Alley lately, ever since the raid happened. And I'm sure Remus or Tonks could accompany you there as well - just in case."

"Perfect. You can even get the Owl you said you wanted at Diagon Alley as well," Harry told her, and the way her eyes lit up at the idea made him grin. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad - they could still write, and maybe the Weasley's would let him use their fireplace so they could talk to each other now and again through the floo network. She'd probably get a kick out of that.

It was only one month after all. After which, they would both be at Hogwarts and he would get to see her almost every day.

"Well, if you all don't get some sleep, you're not going to be awake at all tomorrow morning to want to go anywhere," Mrs. Weasley said, having come over in time to hear the last part of the conversation.

It was clear she was hinting it was time they all headed upstairs now. Unlike before, however, no one tried to argue. Not even Harry, who began to feel slightly dead on his feet at Mrs. Weasley's very mention of the word sleep.

"We should be heading out anyway," Buffy said. "Giles and I have to go over the list of slayers we've found so far, and which of them are going to be assigned here for training."

Everyone began saying their good-nights and goodbyes. Facing Dawn, Harry thought he would maybe kiss her on the cheek, but with Ron, Hermione, Ginny and almost the entire Order of the Phoenix in the room, it wasn't a very private place to kiss her - even just on the cheek.

In the end, he leaned in and gave her a hug, which George commented on as they all finally headed upstairs.

"Why didn't you just kiss her Harry? She obviously wouldn't have been mad if you had," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Too many people watching," Harry said shortly, though with a slight smirk, not at all denying that the thought had crossed his mind.

"Oh-ho! Prefer to be alone, eh?" Fred said in an obnoxious voice.

"Oh stop it you two," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes. "Doesn't anyone else besides me find all of this more than just a little odd?"

"Find what odd?" Ginny asked, speaking up. She'd been rather quite for awhile.

"Well, the fact that not only does the Vampire Slayer just happens to really exist, but that her sister is apparently a witch? And that, for some reason, neither Dawn's parents or her sister ever bothered to send her to school for it?"

"You don't think that Dark Node they lived on blocked her signal - like Buffy said?" Ginny asked.

Hermione shrugged and shook her head. "I've just never read of any Dark Node doing such a thing before, and -"

"Oh Hermione please," Ron said tiredly, cutting her off. "None of us have ever been born and raised on a Dark Node - especially for as long as they have. I would think The Slayer would know more about it and what it does than anyone in our world would." It was obvious Ron held Buffy's opinion in high regard and esteem from the tone of his voice.

Hermione gave Ron a nasty look, but didn't finishing saying what she'd been about to.

For his part, as he followed Ron into the room they shared, Harry didn't really care _what _had prevented Dawn from going to a Wizard school before. All that mattered was that she was going to be going to one _now._

And best of all, the school would be Hogwarts.

* * *

From the "Credit where credit is due" department:

Faith's last name is taken from Joss Whedon himself - who said it was "Lehane" on the Whedonesque message board - because some company needed a last name for her for some Buffy Roll Playing game, and "Lehane" was the one he chose, saying that this was now her official last name.

Andrew's summation of the origin of the slayer is blatantly ripped-off from the _Angel: The Series_ season five episode "Damage," written by Steven DeKnight & Drew Goddard. The info had to be given "on screen," and this was the most un-boring way I could find to do it. ;D

The character of the Vampire Slayer known as Kira comes for the comic book/graphic novel _Tales of the Vampires,_ written by Joss Whedon.

Now, replies:

**phoenix83ad:** As you can see - Dawn has found a loophole! Or, to be more specific, Dumbledore found the loophole, Dawn just agreed to it. ;)

**Tommy Byrn:** I'm glad you're enjoying the story, and yeah, I thought trying to do one that didn't lean on many of the old clichés would be a twist in itself. It would be much more of a challenge to write anyway. ;)

**Evilclone:** None of the LA Fang Gang will be playing a role in this story. This story is running parallel to the events of season five in Angel, so the LA Gang are busy with their own problems at the moment. You will see a lot of the mythology found in AtS showing up in this story, but that's it.

**TwoBrokenToCry:** I love hearing things like that, especially about something I've written so no, I don't think it makes you a dork at all:D I'm very flattered that you like the story that much!

**The Cardboard Moon:** Dead on as to the second reason Dawn's spell didn't work. ;)

**Allen Pitt:** Oddly enough, I actually have two Mac computers at my house. I love Macs, but when I bought my laptop (which I am using to write this story, and the one that went on the fritz) I got a Dell, mainly because Dells are the only computers we use at my work. So it was more practical to get a PC, even though I really wanted a Mac Powerbook. :sigh:

Again, everyone, thank you all so much for the great reviews. Even if I didn't individually replay back to you please know that they all really do inspire me to keep going, more than you know. All I can hope is that now that _Half-Blood Prince_ has been released and this story is now pretty much in AU land that everyone will still be as interested in it as you have been.

Next Up - Chapter Six: Of Keys, Books and Wands


	6. Of Keys, Books and Wands

**Chapter Six: Of Keys, Books and Wands **

Despite his feeling of fatigue, Harry couldn't fall asleep - his mind continuing to replay all the events of the day, ending with the incredible revelation that he and Dawn would actually be attending the same school in September.

The noise of the house grew much quieter as time passed, though he could still here some people moving about downstairs. Not all of the Order had left it seemed. He heard what sounded like Lupin's voice, muffled by the closed bedroom door, moving down the hall and back down the stairs.

The thought of Lupin reminded Harry what his former professor had told him about Kreacher. In all the excitement of everything that had happened after the meeting, Harry had forgotten to order the house elf off to Hogwarts.

Ron was already asleep, lightly snoring in the other twin bed. There was no point disturbing him. Harry quietly got up from his own bed and made his was out of the room, gently shutting the door behind him.

The upstairs hall was dark and quiet now. Harry moved towards the stairs and looked down. The doors to the other rooms were all closed, including the kitchen. Harry knew that - most likely - the remaining members of the Order were in there, discussing whatever they needed too, but hadn't felt they could discuss - for whatever reason - earlier that evening.

Harry moved back down the upstairs hall in the opposite direction, towards Sirius' mother's old bedroom. Entering, he could see that it was one room in the house that hadn't been cleaned much, if at all. It was dark and stuffy.

"Kreacher? Where are you?" Harry called in a low voice.

There was no reply, but he did hear a scampering noise on the other side of the large four poster bed. Moving around to the other side of the bed as quickly and quietly as he could, Harry came upon the old house elf, sitting on the floor, almost folding himself over, as rubbed his hands together and shook his head back in forth as he muttered to himself.

"_Wont listen, won't listen, won't listen . . ._" the elf kept repeating to himself.

"Kreacher," Harry said sternly.

"_Want Miss Bellatrix, not horrid boy, not horrid boy -_," Kreacher wailed and muttered, still avoiding Harry's eye.

"Kreacher, look at me," Harry said in an even harder, more firm voice, raising his tone a little.

It was an order - and being a house elf, Kreacher could not disobey a direct order from the person who owned him.

He looked up at Harry, though it was quite obvious from the expression on his face that he was loathed doing so.

"Look, I don't want you any more than you want me as your master," Harry said without preamble. "But I am your master and you'll do as I say, do you understand me?"

Kreacher began to knock his head back against the bed frame. Again, he looked desperately as if he wanted to disobey but couldn't.

"_Want Miss Bellatrix, want Miss_ _Bellatrix_ -" he wailed again.

Harry's face screwed up in disgust at the thought that this creature Sirius' had owned - and that _he_ now owned - wanted to go to Sirius' murderer. Kreacher's wailing for Bellatrix would almost be pitiable under any other circumstances.

"Well you're mine, not _her's_," Harry said is distain. "And I want you to leave here. I want you to go to the kitchens at Hogwarts and work. There's a house elf there named Dobby - find him, and have him put you to work. Understand me?"

Kreacher stopped his rocking and gave Harry a confused glance - as if he were trying to find some way to disobey this order - before disappearing with what seemed like an angry _pop!_

Harry sighed as he headed back out of the room again - he really wished he could get rid of the crazy elf, but letting him go free just wasn't an option.

"_I missed her?_" someone - in a familiar voice - was saying rather loudly downstairs . . .

Another person loudly shushed the person who had just spoken.

Harry moved quietly back down the hall, past the room he and Ron shared and over to the top of the stairs and, keeping slightly hidden, peered down.

The person who had spoken was Dedalus Diggle. Harry noted that he had not seen the man earlier, when Buffy had been here. He was wearing his normal top hat, which now fell to the ground as the man stamped his foot and shook his head in frustration. "And there's more than one now? I can't _believe_ -"

Mr. Weasley was the one who had shushed him before, and shushed him again now. "You can meet The Slayer another time Dedalus, don't fret about it. There's a more important matter at hand right now, so come on," Mr. Weasley said, heading quickly into the kitchen. He didn't close the kitchen door behind him, however - leaving it open for the man behind him - and Harry could hear parts of the conversation that was going on.

"- can't believe it. It's really -

Fumbling, Dedalus bent over and picked up his top hat and hurried into the kitchen behind Mr. Weasley - his mind still obviously on the slayer whom he had missed meeting - and he didn't notice that the door didn't close all the way and latch after he entered the room. Harry could still slightly hear the discussion that was going on.

He knew he shouldn't eavesdrop, but his curiosity got the better of him, and he moved quietly down the stairs, in order to hear clearer. It was now Emmeline Vance's voice he heard, sounding rather fretful.

" - you sure? Are you sure it's _really_ -"

"Yes, I'm quite sure." It was Professor Dumbledore's voice.

"I think he would know for certain that it was - being as he's one of the only people in our world to have actually _seen_ it before," Snape's voice now, commenting snidely.

_Seen _what_ before?_ Harry wondered, moving now towards the bottom of the stairs, trying to listen more closely. However, no one specifically mentioned what the thing they were talking about was as Lupin spoke up next, asking another question.

"I don't understand. What happen to its guardians? I mean, despite everything You-Know-Who tried last time, they were still able to hide it from him."

"From what I understand, they were all killed," Dumbledore explained. "Slaughtered by a Hellgod, apparently. The Knights of Byzantium - the ones dedicated to its destruction - were all killed by the same creature as well."

There was a long pause following this revelation, and Harry started to wonder if maybe they were done talking about . . . whatever it was they were talking about, when Mr. Weasley spoke up, the tone of his voice holding an edge of worry.

"And . . . and you think bringing The Key back into our world is the right thing to do? I mean, from all the stories I've heard, it was taken away for a reason . . . and if it got all of its previous guardians killed . . ."

_The key?_ _A _key_ got a bunch of people killed?_ Harry thought confused, picturing the type of keys Hagrid always carried with him in his job as Hogwarts groundskeeper.

"The Key _belongs_ back in our world," Snape was now arguing coolly. "It should never have been taken from our people in the first place."

"Now Severus," Dumbledore said, sounding slightly amused. "That all happened three or four millennia ago. There's no need for grudges. And from most of the legendary accounts of that incident, the key was _given_ to the decedents of the Mages because of the fear that someone like Voldemort would come along sooner or later; someone who would want to use it for their own gain."

"So where is it now?" Tonks asked. "Is it safe?"

"It's best if I don't say right now where it is, but yes it _is_ safe for the moment," Dumbledore said. "But we must stay vigilant - for I fear that Voldemort will not stop until he possesses it this time. He may have already begun looking for it again - I don't know. We were fortunate last time in that -"

Harry hadn't realized he had been inching closer and closer to the kitchen door - until it swung open completely and Remus Lupin walked out, right in front of him.

Startled, Harry began to apologies for listening in - but Remus held a finger up to his lips to quiet him, and shut the door behind him.

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered once the kitchen door was closed. "I really didn't mean to eavesdrop or anything - I just-"

But Lupin waved away Harry's worry. "That's alright Harry," he whispered back. He motioned for Harry to follow him over to the stairs, away from the kitchen door. "Dumbledore signaled to me that he knew someone was listening at the door," Lupin explained. "I thought it was Kreacher, but he must have known it was you, or he wouldn't have kept speaking as he had. What are you still doing up?"

"I just sent Kreacher off to Hogwarts," Harry told him. "I forgot to do it before I went to sleep, and then I heard Mr. Weasley and Mr. Diggle talking in the hall afterward. They accidentally left the door open a little when they went back in." Harry paused for a moment, and then asked, "Um, the key you were all talking about . . . everyone sounded rather worried about it. What is it? Is it dangerous?"

Lupin gave him a solemn look as he leaned against the banister. "The Key is a very old - ancient in point of fact - artifact. I've never seen it myself, (only one or two people in our world I believe ever have), and there's not much known about it. Or about everything it can do." He gave a small sigh. "The only thing really known about it is that the power of it is - for all accounts - absolute."

A mystical artifact that contained an absolute power? "But- a power to do what? I mean, it's a key, right?" Harry asked. "So it must be able to unlock something?"

"Well, from the few legends I've read about it - it opens a gateway, any gateway, in the universe."

Harry blinked in surprise. A key that could open any gate - in the whole universe? "And that can be dangerous?"

"_Very,_" Lupin said darkly. "I know you've read in school how this world didn't always belong to men, but to the most vicious of demons - and then that they were driven away from this world, correct?"

Harry nodded.

"Well, some say that The Key was what was used to help drive them from this world, and send them to another. And - in the wrong hands -The Key could be used in the same way again . . . but not to banish demons this time."

Harry stared at him, and gave a slight shudder as he followed what Lupin was implying. "But people, right?"

Lupin nodded grimly.

"And that's why Voldemort wants it?" Harry asked.

"He tried to acquire it more than once last time, but failed. Harry," Lupin continued quietly. "You have to be very discreet about what you overheard and what I've just told you, all right? Dumbledore told us that Voldemort isn't accessing your mind the way he was last year so far - and Albus is planning to give you Occlumency lessons himself this coming term, to make sure he wont be able to. But even so, it wouldn't do to mention this information to too many people."

Harry nodded. "I understand." He could tell that Lupin knew that Harry would probably tell Ron and Hermione what he'd heard - he was just warning him to be careful about it. And after overhearing what had happen to all of the previous guardians of The Key, Harry didn't need to be told how dangerous the knowledge he now possessed was - especially if Voldemort found out about it.

Lupin nodded. "Good. You should get back up to bed now. I'll see you in the morning."

* * *

Diagon Alley looked as if it had had much of its damage cleaned up when Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Lupin and Mr. Weasley all entered it the next day. Many of the shops looked as if they only suffered minor damage, and had not been as almost thoroughly destroyed as the Leaky Cauldron had that night. Even the Cauldron, however, looked to be almost completely repaired when Harry and the others passed through on their way to Gringotts to meet Buffy, Dawn and the others. 

Except for one or two Aurors, however, the pub was almost completely empty, except for Tom the Barman and a few wizards and witches who were seeing to the final repairs. And even though it was a Saturday, Diagon Alley, too, was mostly deserted, save for Ministry Security and Auror members patrolled the streets. As they walked along, Lupin and Tonks explained that that most of the shops that had been robbed and raided by the Death Eater had been over on Knockturn Alley - which was known for having shops that carried a lot of dark magic items - though many shops in Diagon Alley had received some damage in the ensuing escape by the demons and Death Eaters.

Knockturn Alley was now completely closed off to everyone except for high-level Aurors.

Buffy, Dawn and Mr. Giles were waiting for them at Gringotts. Unlike the rest of Diagon Alley, the bank was crowded with people; all of them queued up trying to make transactions, or waiting to access their vaults.

Ron's older brother Bill - who worked for the bank - was there with Buffy, Dawn and Giles when Harry and the others arrived, and he explained that because of the heightened security at the bank, the usual wait to even access one's vault could take over five hours now. Setting up two new accounts for them (one for the Watcher's Council, and a personal one for Buffy and Dawn using Council money) could possibly take even longer.

"I'm sure I can speed things along more than that, but it's still going to take awhile," Bill warned them all, before he headed off to the back offices.

"Well, I guess while he's doing that, Giles and I can head over to that Knockturn place," Buffy said, glancing at her watcher.

"You're going to Knockturn Alley?" Hermione asked. "Why?"

"Buffy and I made arrangements to have a look around Knockturn Alley and check out a few of the shops that were raided. Mr. Shaklebolt said he would meet up there so we could get access, since it's been closed off to everyone for now it seems" Giles explained.

"Can we come?" Dawn asked.

"Sorry Dawnie, but a big crowed of us - it would attract too much attention," Buffy noted. She pulled out a small coin bag out of her back pocket, and gave it to her sister. "Here - take the money Bill was able to exchange for us already. Hopefully there should be enough there to buy all those books you need to get. We'll fill you in on everything when we get back, alright?"

Dawn nodded. "Okay. Where should we meet you?" Harry could see that she and Buffy had an understanding of some sort. Dawn obviously didn't mind being left behind, as long as she was at least told something about what was going on.

"Flourish & Blotts is the bookstore we get all out schoolbooks from," Harry told them. "It's not far from here."

Buffy nodded. "Okay, we'll meet you there, when we're done."

Buffy and Giles headed off, Remus Lupin going along with them, having offered to accompany them and show them the way - as they were still Muggles, and would attract more attention alone than if a Wizard was with them.

"How many books do you need to get?" Harry asked Dawn as the rest of them headed in the direction of Flourish & Blotts.

"_Too_ many," Dawn said with a wince. "I think that Snape guy must hate me or something for ruining the rest of his summer vacation, what with the book lists _he_ sent."

"Lists?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, he sent _two_ book lists and both were much on the _very long_ side of long," Dawn said handing the envelope over to Harry for him to see.

"Snape pretty much hates everyone - except the people in his own house," Ron said with a disgusted look. "And he's always hated Harry."

"Yeah, so being friends with _me_ probably already put you on his to-hate list anyway," Harry said wryly as he opened the thick envelope. Sure enough - along with much shorter book lists from Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Spout (heads of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses respectively) - there were two very long lists of books Dawn was being required to bring with her from the head of Slytherin House. Both lists took up almost two rolls of parchment - each.

The first list contained the titles of various Potions books, but Harry snorted in disbelief when he saw the subject of the second list. "Snape's going to be teaching and evaluating you in Potions _and_ Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Ron shook his head at Dawn in sympathy. "No one should have to put up with double Snape - and during the summer too!"

Flourish & Blotts, unlike Gringotts, was quiet and empty when they entered. With everyone's help, Dawn found all the books she needed, the potions and defense books taking the most time to find, over an hour and a half.

"Snape's completely mad if he thinks you can get through all of these books in one month!" Ron said looking at all the potions and defense books - most of them being "on the _very thick_ side of thick" as Dawn said - that they were helping Dawn to carry over to place on the counter to purchase. They were more books than all the other required books Dawn needed for her other summer lessons put together.

"Well, I have to admit, I'm not so excited about the studying magic thing right now," Dawn said, looking painfully at the pile of books on the counter. She turned to Harry. "If you don't hear from me at all during the next month, just know I've drowned in a sea of five year's worth of schoolwork, okay?"

"It is a shame we can't go with you," Hermione told her sympathetically, placing the books she was carrying on the counter beside the others. "I'm sure we could all help you catch up much faster." Hermione wasn't looking at the pile in the painful way Dawn was, but as if it would be an exciting challenge to everything in them, (that she probably already knew), in only one month.

"_You_ could help her catch up," Ron corrected with a shudder. "I don't think I could deal with trying to help with this much schoolwork - especially during the summer. It's not natural!"

"Doesn't matter - I'm probably going to end up in nothing but first year classes anyway," Dawn noted with a grimace, looking over her piles of books again. "I'm probably too far behind."

Buffy, Giles and Lupin arrived in the bookstore, just as Dawn was finishing up her purchase, Giles carrying some groups of parchment that he looked to be rather engrossed in reading. They all left a few minutes later, Buffy carrying all three large bags full of books.

"You're the one with the super strength," Dawn had said with a grin when Buffy had wondered why she always ended up carrying all of the packages whenever she and Dawn went shopping together.

"So what's next?" Buffy asked

"Wand next!" Dawn said with a grin.

"Ollivander's is the best place for that," Mr. Weasley told her. "He makes the best ones, but the shop's at the other end of Diagon Alley, past Gringotts."

"Well, we can go back to the Bank and see if Bill's done setting up your accounts first," Lupin suggested. "And then head down to Ollivanders."

"Sounds good," Buffy agreed.

"So did you find out anything interesting in that other alley place?" Dawn asked as they headed back towards Gringotts.

"Not much," Buffy told her. "Most of the shops look pretty much like a tornado hit them though. Kingsley gave Giles a list off all the known missing items from all the shops that they've been told about. To see if we recognized anything."

"Anything important missing Mr. Giles?" Hermione asked Giles, catching his attention.

Giles finally looked up from the parchments, looking a little befuddled as his concentration was broken, causing Harry and Ron to exchange an amused glance. Right now it was a little hard for Harry to reconcile the fact that the befuddled-looking man was also the same man who had taken out a huge demon with a large crossbow just a few weeks ago.

"Hm? Oh, uh, I don't know if you'd call them _important._ There are a few interesting items," he said, looking down at the list again and adjusting his spectacles. "Some I don't recognize, but there are a few I . . . oh good lord," Giles broke off. He was now staring at one of the parchment pages with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh oh. I know that look _and_ that exclamation," Buffy said, giving her Watcher a look. "And both together means serious badness. What is it?"

"Uh, well - that shop - Borgin & Burks was it called? Well, apparently it held a very rare copy of the _Saitama Codex_." Giles said in a worried tone.

"What's the - Santa Codex?" Buffy asked confused.

"The Saitama_ Codex_," Giles corrected her. "One of the first known written texts in this world. It's uh, considered quite a dangerous book really; containing not only the earliest known demon lore, but some of the darkest magic spells still known in this world - and some early prophecy lore as well."

Harry's head jerked up sharply at the words "prophecy lore."

"And now The Dark Lord has this book," Lupin stated grimly.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Of course, he's got to be able to _translate_ it first in order to use it, but . . ."

"Something tells me that it's not going to take as long for him to do that as it would anyone else," Buffy said as they arrived back at Gringotts.

Bill came out from the back offices a few minutes later, giving Buffy and Dawn a small velvet bag of Galleons each, along with two keys for their new vault.

"Vault number 822," he told them. "And the Watcher's Council has a special high security vault - number 831," he said, handing a parchment envelope to Giles.

Thanking him as they left, they now headed down to the other end of Diagon Alley, to Ollivanders.

As they reached the shop, Harry noticed that the wand that usually sat on a purple cushion in the front window was gone - along with the cushion it sat on.

Entering, they all stopped dead in their tracks.

The whole place was a mess.

Harry hadn't been back at Ollivanders shop since he had bought his own wand six years ago, and he remembers that the store had been rather cluttered and shabby then. But the way it looked now, it seemed as if someone had deliberately come in and upended everything in the place. The shelves only half-full, with stacks upon stacks of wand boxes - open and closed - all about the floor.

"Hello," a soft voice said from behind the counter - and large stack of wand boxes. "I was told you would be coming today - I've been expecting you."

Harry saw Dawn and her sister exchange a glance just as Mr. Ollivander came out from behind the counter. His large, silver eyes were fixed on Harry, however, and he looked rather tired and slightly addled. "Mr. Potter. I hope you are looking after your wand. From all I've heard, it has been quite advantageous for you. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches - very magical."

"Yes - yes it has," Harry said, not forgetting that he and Voldemort's wands both shared the same phoenix cores, a fact which had saved his life during the night of Voldemort's resurrection.

He gave a nod and then turned his gaze on Buffy - staring at her intently. "And you would be The Slayer," he breathed. "To think - I've actually lived long enough to meet one."

"Uh, nice to meet you," Buffy said wryly, giving him a little nod.

"It's a pity you are not capable of using our form of magic," Ollivander noted, his eyes still fixed on her. "I'd love to be able to make a wand for you - it would be quite a challenge I should think. Quite a large group of people with you and Mr. Potter - all of whom do not need wands I take it?" he asked, his gaze finally traveling over everyone else in the shop.

"Uh, no," Buffy explained. "Only my sister does," she said noting Dawn, who stepped forward rather hesitantly.

Ollivander nodded, his large silver eyes now fixed curiously on Dawn. "Ah yes, your sister. Would you come over here please?" he asked, motioning her forward as he headed back to the counter. "Now, which is your wand hand my dear?" Ollivander asked her when she was opposite him, pulling out his tape measure.

"Uh, well, I'm right handed," Dawn said.

"Hold out your right arm then please."

Dawn did as she was instructed, and Mr. Ollivander measured the length and width of her right arm and hand himself, before moving away from her and back around the counter - the tape measure continuing to take other measurements on its own, which caused Dawn to let out a little squeal of surprise.

"Don't worry, the measurement process is quite harmless, I assure you," he told her, as the tape measure whirled and began to measure the length of the inside of her right leg. "Now, every Ollivander wand has a powerful magical substance for its core. We use phoenix tail feathers, unicorn hairs and the heartstrings of dragons, each one freely given. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two phoenixes, unicorns or dragons are the same. And you will never get such good results with another person's wand of course."

The tape measure was now measuring the distance between Dawn's eyes, causing her to become cross-eyed as she tried to look at it.

"That will be all thank you," Mr. Ollivander said calmly, and the tape measure gave one final whirl before falling to the ground at Dawn's feet. He placed one of the boxes he'd taken off the floor in front of Dawn and opened it. "Try this one Miss Summers. Cedar and unicorn hair. Nine inches. Swishy."

Dawn reached in the box and took up the wand, looking at it with a slightly critical expression on her face.

"Well, just give it a wave then," he told her.

Dawn waved the wand around rather awkwardly. Nothing happened, and Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of her hand not a moment later and handed her another one.

"Ash and phoenix feather, ten and a half inches. Quite bendy. Just -"

Dawn waved the new wand around - and still nothing happened. Mr. Ollivander, again, snatched it away almost at once.

"No, no here - rowan and dragon heartstring, eight inches. Try -"

Dawn had barley given the wand a wave when Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of her hand and gave her yet another one to try. She tried again and again and again, but except for one wand - "Oak and dragon heartstring, fourteen inches, _very_ strong" - that exploded one of the mirrors in the shop when she gave it a wave, nothing happened. Mr. Ollivander kept giving her wand after wand to try, and then snatching them away again only a moment later. Soon, a very large pile of the tried and rejected wands were sitting on the spindly chair that Harry remembered quite well from when he had been in the shop over six years ago and buying his wand, all of his rejected ones having also been placed on it.

Dawn's pile of rejected wand was already getting higher than his had been after only twenty minutes.

"Tricky, tricky," Mr. Ollivander was muttering happily. Dawn was starting to look frustrated, but Mr. Ollivander looked to be very much enjoying himself. "We'll find it yet, not to worry!"

However, over an hour and a half - and what was likely more than over 200 wands later, not one of the wands Dawn tried had done much of anything. One of apple wood and unicorn hair had flown right out of her hand - as if trying to escape - when she'd given it a wave, but that was all.

By this time Giles and Mr. Weasley had already left the shop to meet Willow and Xander at Grimmauld Place for lunch, along with Tonks and Ginny. (Harry had been happy to hear that the extra security measures at the Burrow would be finished by that evening, and that they could all return and stay at the Burrow tonight). The only people who were still in the shop along with Dawn were Buffy, Lupin, Ron, Hermione and Harry. Ron was sitting on the floor of the shop looking half-bored, while stealing little glances now and again at Buffy. (Harry figuring she was the reason he'd stayed and not gone with the rest of his family back to Grimmauld Place, even though he would whisper to Harry now and again how hungry he was). Hermione was ignoring Ron decidedly, while watching Dawn's attempt to find a wand with a concentrative interest.

"This. Isn't. Working," Dawn said in tired frustration, placing the latest wand she had just tried in the rejection pile herself as Mr. Ollivander had, for some reason, paused and not taken it out of her hand himself. He was just staring at her with what looked to be a mix of ecstatic surprise and delight - with also a touch of worry as well.

"Well, maybe you're just being too picky or something," Buffy said. "I mean, you know how picky you can get when you're shopping for shoes. Maybe-"

Mr. Ollivander was shaking his head. "It's the wand that chooses the witch, not the other way around. And none of my wands have chosen your sister. I think the oak one might have been trying to when it exploded the mirror, but -"

"Great," Dawn said sarcastically. "I just spent over an hour getting rejected by pointy wood." Then her face screwed up, and she closed her eyes in tired embarrassment. "And you should all just ignore how kind-of dirty that sounded."

"Well, you'll just have to keep trying then," Harry said - taking her advice on ignoring her bad turn of phrase, and trying to cheer her up. "There's got to be one here somewhere that -"

"That was the last one," Mr. Ollivander noted with a nod at the pile of rejected wands, and the last wand Dawn had placed on top of the now overflowing pile. "She has just finished trying every wand I have in this shop - and _none_ of them chose her. I don't _have_ anymore for her to try." He didn't say it with regret - in fact, he looked completely delighted by the fact.

Everyone else, however, looked at the shopkeeper in surprise. "That was it? Not _one_ of them worked?" Hermione said, not quite believing it.

"Yes. Not one of these wands is a correct match for Miss Summers."

Dawn looked annoyed and heartbroken all at once as she looked over at Harry. "I guess Dumbledore was wrong - I'm not really a witch after all," she said, completely dejected.

"Oh no Miss Summers," Mr. Ollivander said with a shake of his head, correcting her. "There _is_ power in you. Again, the oak wand was proof enough of that. The problem is that none of these wands seem to be able to channel or control it properly . . . or they just refused to try and do so. This just means - I shall have to make you a wand myself."

"But - you made all of _these_, and none of _them_ worked," Dawn said skeptically.

"No. This wand I shall have to make specifically for _you_," Mr. Ollivander said with obvious delight. "I've never had to do that before. I've always anticipated every type of wand, every possible combination. Rare . . . yes, very rare indeed," he muttered. "When do you leave for Hogwarts? The same day as the other students?"

"Uh, no, I'm leaving early. On August first. I have to go in early for special lessons."

Mr. Ollivander nodded, his silver eyes darting back and forth, as if calculating something in his mind. "Two days - two days. Yes, yes, plenty of time - plenty of time . . . yes, you shall have it by then," he murmured as he began collecting the discarded wands, quickly bowing them from the shop. "Good day, good day."

The others all looked at each other as they turned and left, Dawn still looking slightly dejected. Everyone could tell that she had really been looking forward to getting a wand.

"I don't think I've _ever_ read of an Ollivander wand never matching anyone before," Hermione noted as they headed back towards the Leaky Cauldron.

"It's probably because I'm not a witch," Dawn repeated moodily.

"No, you are," Hermione said firmly. "Mr. Ollivander was right - the fact that one of those wands_ did_ work - however slightly - proves that. If you weren't, it wouldn't have done anything at all. Still, it's odd you weren't discovered before now," she continued thoughtfully, and Harry noticed Buffy giving Hermione a rather critical sidelong glance.

"Well, you'll get your wand in a few days," Harry said, trying to cheer Dawn up. "Don't worry about it. And, you know, you can still get the Owl you said you wanted to get - the Owl shop is right down this way, right near the Leaky Cauldron."

Dawn did cheer up a little at that, and when they reached Eeylops Owl Emporium, (which, like every shop in Diagon Alley was completely quiet and empty when they entered), she picked out a pretty gray Tawny Owl, which she named Nibblet - to be called Nib for short.

"Nibblet?" Harry asked as they left the shop.

"It was a nickname Spike gave me," Dawn said with a small smile. They all knew that Spike had been the Vampire that had help fight in the last battle in the Sunnydale Hellmouth, and had been the one to officially close it, using a magical amulet.

"Maybe I should speak to Giles about getting a few Owls for the new Council and Slayer school," Buffy said. "I have to say, the fact that no one in this world uses a phone is _really_ inconvenient for us non-magic using folks."

"Buffy's was a little ticked when Dumbledore told her cell phones don't work at Hogwarts - which means she can't call and check up on me twenty-four/seven," Dawn whispered to Harry with a chuckle. Louder, she said, "I'm sure Xander could build in an Owl room of some sort, if you ask him."

Xander and Giles both thought an Owl Room was a good idea when Buffy brought it up, after they all arrived back at Grimmauld Place later. "And, you know, having to clean up the place would make an excellent detention punishment for someone," Xander had noted, rubbing his hands together, looking mock-gleeful at the prospect.

* * *

Dawn decided to spend the day of July 30th shopping for clothes and packing her trunk so she could spend the next day - which was Harry's birthday - with all of them before she left for Hogwarts. So Harry didn't see her at all the next day when he was at the Burrow, but occupied himself by practicing and playing two-sided Quidditch with Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Hermione, as usual, wasn't very good, so Harry had her on his team, since Ginny was very good, but Ron had only improved a little since last year. They all said that Harry was sure to make Captain this year, and he had smiled with pride at the prospect. 

Towards the end of breakfast the next day, (Mrs. Weasley having made quite a feast for Harry's sixteenth birthday), Dawn's new owl flew in one of the open windows and landed on the table right beside Harry, one of Dawn's stationary envelops attached to his leg.

"What's going on?" Ron asked, as Harry read the note Dawn had sent him.

"Dawn says Mr. Ollivander just sent her a message saying her wand was ready. Willow headed off for South America last night, Xander's busy at the council's construction site, and Buffy and Giles got word of a new slayer located up in Wales this morning, and went to go see her. They won't be back till this evening. So she wondered if I'd like to come with her to get it," Harry said, looking at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "Can I?"

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley exchanged a glance. "Well, I guess," Mrs. Weasley said slowly. "But someone should go with you," she said firmly.

"I have to leave for work soon," Mr. Weasley said. "But maybe Remus or Alastor could go with you all."

Using the floo network, Mr. Weasley contacted Lupin, who was still staying at Order headquarters, and he agreed to go with Harry and the others to Diagon Alley, and that Moody agreed to come along as well. However - before sending Nib back to Dawn telling her what time to meet him at the entrance to Diagon Alley, he cornered Ron and Hermione upstairs, and asked then if they wouldn't mind staying behind at the Burrow along with Ginny, so he could meet Dawn alone.

"You don't want us to come with you?" Hermione asked.

Harry shuffled on his feet a little. "If you don't mind. I mean, Dawn's leaving tomorrow, and I've barley had a chance to spend any time with her - you know, like before, after we first met - and she's coming back here later anyway. But I thought I could take her for some ice cream first maybe, or -"

Ron broke Harry off with a laugh. "Sure mate. Go spend some time with your girlfriend - we'll see you later, right Hermione?"

Harry didn't correct Ron's referring to Dawn as his girlfriend, even though she wasn't.

At least, not in any official way.

"Yeah, okay," Hermione agreed, though she looked slightly disappointed. Harry knew it was because she would have to wait now to find out the type of wand Mr. Ollivander had made for Dawn.

Hermione went off to inform Ginny of the change in plans, and if Mrs. Weasley or Lupin, (who arrived at the Burrow with Moody half an hour later), were surprised at all when Harry told them that only he and Dawn were going, they didn't say anything.

"So where's the girl?" Moody asked gruffly.

"Uh, she said she'd meet us there - at the Leaky Cauldron. She's probably already there," Harry told him.

"What, all by herself?" Moody asked, looking as if that were the silliest thing he'd ever heard.

"Yes. She grew up on a Dark Node - I'm sure she knows to be careful," Harry said, feeling the need to defend Dawn a little.

Moody just grunted. "Well come on then - better hope nothing's happened to her."

The Leaky Cauldron had finally been thoroughly repaired now, but was completely empty when Harry, Lupin and Moody arrived. The only two people in the place were Tom and Dawn, who was sitting at one of the tables near the entrance to Diagon Alley waiting for them, a small clothing store shopping bag next to her.

"Bloody foolish," Moody grumbled behind Harry was they walked up. "Sister of The Slayer and she's sittin' here all by herself!"

"Happy Birthday Harry!" Dawn said to him brightly when they reached her. She gave a hello to Lupin and Moody, and then turned back to Harry. "I've got a present for you," she told him, picking up the bag that was by her seat and holding it out to him. "It's actually from me _and_ Buffy - but don't open it until the party later, okay?"

"Thanks!" Harry said, taking a look inside the bag. Inside the bag there was a box that was gift wrapped.

"Where are Ron and Hermione?" Dawn asked.

"Oh, uh - they decided to stay at the Burrow and help Ron's mother," Harry said, ignoring the raised eyebrow look Lupin was giving him. "I mean, it's not going to be a huge party or anything, but she still needed a little help with everything. We'll see them there later."

"Oh, okay," Dawn said.

Lupin cleared his throat. "I think we should head over to Ollivander's now, so Dawn can get her wand," he said, heading for the wall entrance. "Even with the Aurors about, we shouldn't stay in Diagon Alley any longer than necessary, especially if you still want stop and take Dawn for some ice cream Harry."

Dawn looked at him curiously at what his former professor had just said. "Ice cream?"

"Uh - yeah, I mean, if you want to," Harry said, giving her an innocent smile.

Dawn smiled back. "Sure. Sounds like fun."

Harry heard Moody give another audible grunt behind them.

Arriving at Ollivanders, Harry had expected the shop to look just as messy as it had been when they'd been there just two days ago - but was in for another shock when he walked inside:

The whole shop was completely clean - and almost completely empty.

All the boxes that had covered and littered the floor just two days ago were now all gone. All the shelves in the place were still bare, however. Even the spindle chair was gone.

The only two thing in the shop were Mr. Ollivander himself, waiting behind the counter - and a long wand box sitting on the counter before him.

He did not turn his head as they entered the shop, the bell above the door announcing their presence. His gaze fixed out the window, apparently lost in thought.

The four of them glanced at each other a moment, and then Dawn cleared her throat. "Um, excuse me, Mr. Ollivander?"

A moment passed before the old man turned away from the window and finally fixed his strange slivery eyes on them. He still did not speak however.

Dawn moved forward slightly, up to the counter. "Um, you sent me a note - saying my wand was ready?"

Mr. Ollivander blinked - almost, it seemed to Harry, as if he were clearing his thoughts - before giving a nod. "Yes, yes Miss Summers, its right here," he said, laying his hands on the wand box on the counter. He opened the box slowly, watching Dawn now - for some reason - with unhidden fascination. "Twelve and three quarter inches exactly. Ivy wood," he said solemnly. "Ivy is a rare wood to use for a wand . . . very mysterious. And the plant itself can be stronger than even an oak."

Dawn's eyes seemed to be fixed on the wand Mr. Ollivander presented before her. Slowly, she reached inside the wand box and lifted it out. It was a deep, rich brown in color, and elegantly carved. Dawn ran her free hand over its length, and then looked over at Harry, a huge smile on her face.

"It feels warm," she said softly, her voice filled with awe.

Harry grinned back - he knew what that meant. "Wave it. See what happens."

Dawn gave the wand an elegant swish, and beautiful green and white sparkles arched through the air from it, and gently floated to the floor.

"Well, I think she's finally found a match," Lupin said with a smile at Mr. Ollivander.

"I _am_ a witch!" Dawn said to Harry, smiling even wider, delighted.

Mr. Ollivander, however, was not smiling. He was just staring at Dawn with a concerned and utterly confounded expression. "Aren't you curious about the core I used to make that wand?" he asked quietly.

Dawn looked at Harry and Lupin, and then shrugged. "Was it another dragon's heartstring?" she guessed. The one wand that had worked for her before had had that type of core, and Harry too guessed that that was the core used for Dawn's wand as well.

Mr. Ollivander, however, shook his head. "No. When I wrote to Professor Dumbledore about having to fashion a wand for you Miss Summers, I _did_ suggest a dragon's heartstring for its core. However, in his reply, he suggested that I use something else instead. Something he knew I had come upon a few years ago. As you know," Mr. Ollivander explained to them all. "All the wands in Ollivander's use for its magical cores either the heartstring from a dragon, a phoenix feather, or the tail hair of a unicorn - all freely given, of course."

Harry, Dawn and Lupin all nodded, already knowing this. Moody said nothing, just continued to watch everyone intensely.

"Well, sometimes other magical items that can be used for a core will come across my path," he continued. "Leprechaun hair. A talon from a hippogriff. The ash from an ashwinder, such things as that. All also freely given, as I will take and keep no core that isn't. I do not use such items to make the wands I sell here however," Ollivander noted. "Usually, I will just store these items away safely, until another wand maker might need such a core. Then I will either sell it to that person, or make an exchange for one of the cores I do use."

"Okay," Dawn said slowly. "But what does that have to do with my wand?"

Mr. Ollivander eyed her with his wide, silvery eyes. "Over two - almost three now - years ago, while on my way back from a trip to Greece I had taken to collect some fine Palm and Olive wood for carving, I came upon something most - extraordinary."

"What?" Harry asked.

"A chimaera."

Harry stared at him. Lupin looked as if he almost didn't believe what Mr. Ollivander had just said. Even Moody slightly raised an eyebrow with interest. Only Dawn was confused.

"A chimwhatsit?" she asked

"A chimaera," Lupin corrected her, still looking as if he didn't believe what he'd just heard. "A creature that is part-lion, part-goat and part-serpent, which can breathe fire. Vicious creature too, utterly bloodthirsty. The Ministry has them classified as dangerous, and no one is allowed to bring one into the country. Even their eggs are classified as non-tradable goods." Lupin shook his head in amazement. "No one I know has ever seen one."

"The last person who did, died," Harry said completely thunderstruck, remembering what he'd read about the chimaera in his book _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ during his first year at Hogwarts, and the story of Dai Lleweleyn in his copy of _Quidditch Through the Ages_; the famous - and ultimately unlucky - Quidditch player who had met his end when he was eaten by one. "What did it do to you?"

Mr. Ollivander shook his head. "That was the first strange thing - absolutely nothing."

"Nothing?" Lupin asked surprised.

"Not a thing. I still think it was because it was already eating something at the time - looked to be a stag, I'm not sure. But it did notice me. And, when it did, it began to do something even more wondrous."

"What?" Harry asked, only now realizing he was holding his breath in anticipation.

"It began to scratch itself."

Lupin, Harry and Dawn all just looked at him for a moment, and Mr. Ollivander just looked back at them, completely serious.

Then, Dawn blinked. "It _scratched_ itself? Uh, okay _dogs_ can do that. _People_ do that!" she gave a small laugh, though there was a nervous tone to it.

Mr. Ollivander shook his head, eyeing her again. "You misunderstand. By scratching itself, it began to peel off one of its scales."

"One of its scales?" Harry asked.

"Yes, it was the hind part - the serpent part - that it was scratching from."

"Wait a minute - are you saying that the chimaera _gave_ you one of its scales? _Freely_ gave you one of its scales?" Lupin asked disbelievingly, having quickly seen where this was going.

"Yes, I am. It looked at me again right after the scale had fallen to the ground."

"And then what?"

"Then it picked up the rest of its meal in one of its jaws, and went on its way. I never saw it again. After I returned home, I stored the scale in my cellar, along with the other magical core items I trade. Only I never did trade that one you see. I never wanted to for some reason."

"I would think a chimaera scale would be non-tradable anyway," Lupin remarked.

"Given that actually obtaining a scale from one is so rare, they're not classified at all," Mr. Ollivander said knowingly. "Anyhow," he added, "the only person I ever told that I had such an item was Professor Dumbledore, since the experience - and the way the scale was obtained - was most extraordinary, to say the least."

Dawn glanced down at the wand in her hand. "So . . . so you're saying the core of my wand -"

"Is that scale, yes."

"And . . . and is that bad?" she asked sheepishly.

Mr. Ollivander looked at her solemnly. "It is said that a chimaera scale was one of the four preferred wand cores of the ancient witches and wizards, back when they first appeared in this world," he told them. "And as I've said, a wand with such a core is more than rare these days, but one that has been freely given is - well, _unheard_ of. At least, as far back as _I_ know of."

"What's the special quality of a wand like this one?" Lupin asked after a pause, his eyes now fixed on the wand in Dawn's hand.

In answer, Mr. Ollivander again said something Harry had never heard of Mr. Ollivander ever saying before about one of his wands:

"I don't know."

He didn't say it bitterly, or dismissively, or with any touch of irony. He just said it.

"What? What do you mean you don't know?" Harry asked, not quite believing he'd heard correctly.

"I'm saying I have no idea what that wand's qualities are Mr. Potter," Mr. Ollivander said evenly. "Having a chimaera scale as a magical core can make a very powerful wand, to be sure . . . almost _too_ powerful - even for some of the most powerful witches or wizards of today - to completely control in fact. However, such wands are usually made from scales that are _taken_ from a chimaera - and usually from one that was already dead. So some of the magical property of it is already lost from them by the time they are used. I, however, have no idea how powerful such a wand with such a core that was _freely_ given would be. And together with ivy wood . . ." He shook his head. "Any record of such wands as _that_ have been lost for centuries - even before Ollivander's itself was first established."

He looked at Dawn. "And as of this moment, that wand will reveal its unique and special qualities to Miss Summers and Miss Summers alone - since it was _her_ it chose as its user. And even then, it may not reveal all of its qualities to her for quite some time."

"So you're saying - Dawn's wand is _secretive?_" Harry asked after a pause, with a frown. He'd never heard of such a thing before with a wand.

Mr. Ollivander nodded. "Exactly so Mr. Potter."

Dawn, obviously not as enthralled as she had first been by the wand, placed it back in the box still open on the counter. "Not so excited about the studying magic thing again," she said with a shake of her head, then sighed. "How much is it?" she asked.

Mr. Ollivander named the price, which was a little more expensive than most of his other wands. He explained that was because the wand had to be specifically made for Dawn - not because of its rare core.

As they left the shop and headed over to the ice cream parlor, Dawn's new wand in the box now tucked under her arm, she looked at Harry and Lupin with a worried glance. "Um, can we, maybe, keep what the core of my wand is between the four of us?"

Lupin gave her a sidelong glance. "Why?"

"Well, something tells me Buffy would totally freak if she found out the core of my wand came from some rare, bloodthirsty beast thingy. Since, you know - kind of her sacred duty and all to _kill_ bloodthirsty beast thingies."

Harry shrugged. "I won't say anything."

Dawn smiled at him, and then looked at Lupin, hopeful.

He gave a shake of his head, but agreed. "Okay, I won't say anything either - unless you're sister asks me directly, of course."

Dawn nodded. "Fair enough." She looked over at Moody who'd not spoken once the whole time they'd been in the shop, a half-pleading look on her face.

"Hm!" Moody just grunted.

Dawn sighed. "I'll just take that as a 'yes.'"

* * *

Thanks, again, to my betas. You guys are the best. 

Replies (quick ones this time):

**SiriusSpikeLover:** Spike will not appear. As I said in chapter one, he's in LA with Angel.

**rabid squirrel:** One of the reasons I wanted to write this story was because I too wanted more stories that kept everyone believably in character. Glad you think I'm keeping everyone in pretty much. Is who you asked about still going to die? Hmm . . . nope, I can't tell you that - it would give it away! ;D

**The Carboard Moon:** Hey, being a geek is fun! And I must say; you're _really_ close in your guess about why Dawn didn't get a letter! (More of the answer as to why is in this chapter too.)

**Anne:** Thank you so much for the lovely review! I'm so happy to hear that you're enjoying the story, and yes, my dad is feeling better! (He just got out of the hospital in fact, and is doing much better).

Again, thanks to everyone for all the reviews! Remember, all reviews are welcome (excepting flaims of course).

Next Up - Chapter Seven: A Hellmouth Education


	7. Interlude

**Interlude**

_Anatolia, near the coast; southwest of the Dardanelles and northwest of the Ida Mountains._

_1290 B.C._

Her companion was clutching the scrolls to his chest carefully as they made their way through the ruins of the city. She would rather not have traveled through the place in this way, but they both agreed not to waste their energy for unimportant things.

It had been so long since they had been in their home dimension, neither of them could remember if the journey back would be a strenuous one or not.

It had been the Mages who had named the place for the exchange, oddly. The war was over now however, and the conquering army had departed. All that remained were the unburned or unburied bodies, along with the tools of war and the now-ruins of the once great city.

Even the wizards and witches, the ones who had been responsible for the 10 long years of battle, had fled.

No one would return to this place for months, after word of the destruction of the city finally reached all of those far and wide. There would be no one to follow or observe the exchange - the thing that worried the Mages more than any other about this.

Her companion let out a small sigh, rubbing his hand together, catching her eye as he did so.

It was such a human gesture, one of nervousness. He, much more than her, appeared to be prone to such things. He had even created offspring with a human; with descendents now numbered in the hundreds he had told her.

Lorinites were not immortal, but their lifespan was significantly longer than any other being on Earth at the moment, including their own descendents - the ones who simply called themselves wizards and witches. They were long-lived as well - more than regular humans were at any rate - but not like the two of them.

She and her companion were the last of pure Lorinites known to still remain on Earth, however. Those with no attachments had left once the initial job for which their kind had been sent -

- _ordered; _the thought, amended -

- to Earth to do had more or less been completed. Some had been killed in the early battles against the Old Ones, but of those who survived, many had remained to watch and guard. To insure that man could grow and populate under no threat from any of the darker remnants that had remained.

Some, like her companion, had even mated within the humans, creating the new - though weaker - hybrid of their own kind.

The original Mages too had also bred with the humans. (Unlike the Lorinites, Mages were _not_ as long lived. In fact, those they were meeting with tonight were many generations removed from the ones that had first came to Earth.) So, too, had many of the demons - though in many of these instances, it constituted as more of infection, such as in the case of the vampires.

Unlike her companion however, she did not have any witch or wizard descendents here. Her life, after the wars and the cleansing, had been dedicated to the protection and care of The Key, of which she had helped to create, untold eons ago, before their people had even come to Earth.

It would now be _her_ legacy - the one link to her that would remain on Earth, after she'd gone.

She had remained till the last, as she was the keeper. The one who guarded over the power that allowed their people to travel between dimensions. It had been used in the wars against the Old Ones, banishing them to other realms and out of this one.

The waves of the sea gently breaking against the rocks was the only sound as the two of them made their way along the shore now. There was a large olive tree up on the bluffs - unburnt and unharmed by the savage sacking and pillaging of the once golden and magnificent city below.

Two figures were waiting by the tree. Human eyes would not have been able to see them in only the dark moonlight, but she could see them both quite clearly. They both appeared to be quite nervous . . . but they had come.

Her companion hitched his breath slightly as he too caught sight of them, and pressed the scrolls even close to his chest.

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" he ask quietly.

She understood his apprehension. Most Mages and Lorinites had never gotten along quite well, even though together they had both been called to rid the Earth of its demon scourge.

The magical power of the Mages was much different than that of the Lorinites, Mages having to draw the power _to_ themselves, not _from_ themselves as the Lorinites did. Mostly, Mages drew their power from the Earth itself, but sometimes they took it from whatever was available to them.

Including other creatures.

Sometimes the power a Mage would draw upon would be too dark or too much for them to control, resulting in a darkly powerful Mage that would become a threat not only to others, but most of all themselves.

Sadly, however, she trusted the Mages to protect The Key and use its power more wisely than she did her own peoples decedents. Too many of them had become arrogant, many of them looking down on the humans born without magic; humans they were supposed to protect.

This recent war had been their fault. They had allowed themselves to be worshipped as Gods for centuries by both of the combating armies, and now one of the greatest cities in the world lay in blood ruin because of their arrogance and pettiness.

Not all of their decedents were this way of course. But it was best that The Key remain out of their hands for now. When they had grown, and become much wiser maybe . . . .

She didn't speak, but gave her companion a short, assured nod. Their time was ended here. Only The Key need remain now.

Without noticing, she clutched the dark urn a bit closer to her chest as she approached its contents new guardians.

**

* * *

Author's Notes: **

Short bit, I know, but it is just an interlude (which _will_ be important later, however).

The next chapter is coming, is about 2/3rds done in fact. I do apologies for the long wait, but it could not be helped as personal family obligations took precedence over everything for a few months. My father's health took a turn for the worse, and he passed away over a month ago. So, needless to say, I didn't have much time to write or update anything.

Things have settled a little now for my mom and I now however, so I'm slowly getting back into the swing of this story. I do hope no one has given up on it, as I do assure you I haven't.

Thank you everyone for your comments and reviews, even months since my last update. Please don't stop them, as they do help keep me motivated.

Coming up: Chapter Seven: A Hellmouth Education


	8. A Hellmouth Education Part I

**Author's Note - Please Read!**

Okay, here's the deal:

I desperately, desperately do _not_ want to abandon this story. I have an awesomely bad habit of doing that with stories, and I made a promise to myself when I started this one that I _was _going to finish it.

And then all this real life stuff started happening to me. Not only did my father pass away (he had a brain tumor for those who don't know), but then not more than a month later I lost my job because the company I worked for moved to another county - one that was way too far away for me to commute to.

So for the past couple of months I haven't done any writing at all. I've either been looking for work, or just sitting around with my mom.

It's been over seven months now, and I have just started looking over this story again. The next chapter - chapter seven - has been sitting at about 3/4ths done for all that time.

So, to give myself not only a motivational kick, but also as a way of not keeping anyone waiting any longer for a new part, I'm going to post this next chapter in parts. I really like posting my chapters in one long part as I have in all the pervious ones before this, but I honestly think this is the only way to start kick-starting my muse again.

So here's the first part of Chapter Seven, which I think will total four parts in all. It's been spell checked and grammar checked, but not beta'd. I will be contacting the lovely ladies who did the beta-ing for the earlier chapters to see if they are still interested.

So anyway, enjoy, and review comments are at the end.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: A Hellmouth Education - Part I**

The stop for Ice Cream proved not to be an option when they arrived at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, and discovered it was closed. Looking inside the shop window, Harry noticed that most of the tables and chairs had been removed, as well as the ones that usually sat outside.

What's more, in front of the shop, stood what appeared to be an almost hastily assembled vendor booth; a wormy-looking man was standing behind it, selling what appeared to be amulets and charms.

"Want to by a charm for your pretty friend?" the vendor said, leaning forward and leering at Dawn. "Such a pretty girl could use a pretty piece of protection?"

"No thank you," Lupin said firmly, taking Dawn and Harry both by the arm and moving them away from the shop hurriedly.

"What was that about?" Dawn wondered when they were out of earshot.

"Just someone taking advantage of the rise of dark magic and dark creatures that sure to come if You-Know-Who isn't stopped," Lupin told them, a look of disgust on his face. "Come on. We can all have some Butterbeer at the Leaky Cauldron instead."

Arriving at the cauldron, Lupin and Moody sat at one table, with Dawn and Harry sitting at another table a few feet away, though they were the only group of people in the pub. Harry had given both Lupin and Moody a grateful smile for the semi-privacy they gave to Dawn and him.

"Well, I did finally get to come here, even if it's a few weeks later than you originally invited me," Dawn said with a cheeky smile as Tom brought their drinks over, referring to the last time Harry had tried to take her to the Cauldron and what had happened.

As they drank their Butterbeer and ate the small order of Fish & Chips Dawn had ordered, ("_So_ English," Dawn had noted with a grin), talk turned to Dawn's approaching trip to Hogwarts. Harry told her more about the school that hadn't already been discussed during the previous day, when they had been shopping for her schoolbooks.

As with most things about Hogwarts Harry spoke of, the conversation eventually turned to Quidditch, and Harry spent almost half and hour explaining to Dawn how the game was played. She didn't appear bored at all as he explained the game to her however, and she'd even seemed receptive to his offered to teach her a bit of the sport when they got back to the Burrow.

"I've never been very good at sports though," Dawn warned him warily. "I even sucked at Cheerleading when I tried out for it. I'll probably end up just falling off the broomstick when it's only two feet off the ground or something."

Harry chuckled at her self-deprecation. "I can probably get Ron and the others to help show you a bit of it too. He and Ginny are both on the Gryffindor team with me."

"And I'll bet you're Captain of the team, right?" Dawn guessed.

"Uh, no," Harry said shaking his head. "Though Ron and Ginny keep saying I'm sure to be this year."

"Well, I'm sure you will too. You really seem to love it. Though I'll have to probably root against you, just on house-team principle," Dawn said thoughtfully, with a slight smirk. "Are the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams any good?"

Harry and the others had explained to Dawn all about the four Hogwarts Houses while they had scoured Flourish & Blotts looking for Dawn's required books the day before yesterday. Harry had said that he thought that she was prime to be sorted into Gryffindor; what with not only having had to grow up on a Dark Node, but from what he'd seen of her bravery in the alley on Charing Cross Road. Dawn, however, had disagreed.

"I'm not really that brave," she had told them, shaking her head. "Not like - _Buffy_-brave. I just helped when I could. Or, when Buffy would actually _let_ me," she'd added, her tone becoming slightly snarky. Then she shrugged. "It's more likely that I'll probably end up in one of the other houses."

"Well, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are good houses too," Hermione had said, looking up from one of the potions books that Snape was requiring Dawn bring with her - which she had been skimming through.

"Ravenclaw - that's the one that has all the smart people, right?" Dawn had asked, looking at Hermione curiously. "How come you weren't sorted there?"

Hermione had shrugged, offhandedly. "I almost _was_ actually, but the sorting hat thought I'd do even better in Gryffindor in the end. The hat doesn't just sort you somewhere because of the main traits you may have," she had explained. "It sometimes bases it on the trait that it thinks would be the one that needs to be brought out the most and will lead you to the most success in your life."

_Or if you ask it _not_ to place you somewhere,_ Harry had thought fleetingly.

"Well, I do like to study - most of the time," Dawn had said, thoughtfully. "Oh, and I helped with a lot of the research on The First Evil and some of the other demons we fought last year," she told them. "And I want to be a Watcher like Giles one day - so maybe I'll end up there. Though I suppose Hufflepuff would be okay too, I guess. I mean I know you guys said Hufflepuff isn't considered by many people to be very special or anything, but I think it sounds okay."

"Well, better Hufflepuff than Slytherin at any rate," Harry had told her, repeating what Hagrid had told him six years ago when he'd despaired the idea of being sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Slytherin? The house that Snape guy is in charge of?" Dawn had asked.

"Yeah," Ron face had taken on a disgusted look. "Not only that, but it's also the house that's turned out the most Dark Wizards out of all the others."

"Half the people in there have parents who are Death Eaters," Harry had told her, think of Draco Malfoy and his group of friends. He'd smiled a little at the pleasant thought that Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, was now locked up in Azkaban.

"Well, I don't have any desire to end up wearing one of those tacky black hoods anyway," Dawn had said with a grin.

"Even if you did, they wouldn't let you in," Ron had told her, knowingly. "You're muggle-born. And no muggle-borns have _ever_ been sorted into Slytherin. Salazar Slytherin hated muggle-borns and thought they shouldn'tve ever been allowed to attend Hogwarts in the first place. It's why he left the school - had a big fight with the other three founders about it."

"Well, I _still_ think you'll end up in Gryffindor," Harry told her now. "But the Ravenclaw team is very good, usually," Harry told her, thinking about the last game of the year last year, and how Ginny had caught the golden Snitch right out from under Cho Chang's nose.

He knew Cho was usually a better Quidditch player than she had been last year - and he knew part of the reason for her bad playing last year was because of him.

And Cedric.

Harry quickly shook off the direction his thoughts were going in, just as the front door to the Leaky Cauldron opened, letting sunlight flood into the dark tavern as two people that Harry knew entered.

One was Neville Longbottom. The other person with him was his Grandmother.

Neville gave Harry a pleasant wave when he finally spotted him. "Hello Harry!" he called.

"Hey, Neville," Harry called back in greeting.

"Friend?" Dawn inquired.

Harry nodded. "Neville Longbottom. We're in the same year and house at Hogwarts together," he explained as Neville and his Grandmother made their way over to their table. His Grandmother, Augusta, was carrying her usual red handbag and wearing her usual green robes, red fox-fur and vulture toped hat. Harry could see Dawn trying to suppress her laughter, her eyes wide with surprise and mirth at the woman's appearance, as the two approached.

Mrs. Longbottom, however, didn't appear to notice Dawn at all, her attention focused completely on Harry. When she reached them, she took Harry's hand, and began shaking it vigorously. "Harry Potter! It is an honor to see you again, I must say!"

"Uh, nice to see you again too ma'am," Harry said politely.

"_You_ may call me Augusta dear," Mrs. Longbottom told Harry crisply.

Harry blinked. "Uh, this is my friend, Dawn Summers," he said, introducing Dawn to them. "Dawn, this is Neville and his grandmother Mrs., uh -" he glanced at Neville's grandmother - "Augusta Longbottom."

Neville smiled at Dawn a little awkwardly. "He-Hello," he stammered slightly.

Dawn smiled back, warmly. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well, my dear," Augusta said with a nod. "Summers did you say? Are you by any chance related to Archibald Summers, who works in the Floo Network Authority Department at the Ministry of Magic?" she asked, curiously.

"Um, no, I don't think so ma'am. I'm not from around here actually," Dawn explained.

"Ah-are you American?" Neville asked curiously. He and his grandmother both looked to have noticed Dawn's accent.

Dawn nodded. "I'm from California."

"She's going to Hogwarts this year with us though," Harry explained.

"Oh. Well, you'll really like Hogwarts," Neville told her. "It's a great school. Gran was just taking me to get my school books for this year, now that O.W.L. scores are out and all you know."

"O.W.L. scores are out?" Harry asked a little surprised. In all the excitement of the past few weeks, he'd almost forgotten all about them.

Neville nodded. "Yeah. You didn't know? They arrived today, around about noon."

"You kids probably would have gotten them sooner, but they were delayed for various reasons from what I understand," Mrs. Longbottom explained. "Mostly having to do with You-Know-Who's return of course, and that event with you kids at the Department of Mysteries. It makes me so proud that Neville has such a good, sensible friend like you Harry - never believed for a moment the things that idiot Fudge was saying about you and Dumbledore all last year. As if someone like Albus Dumbledore would lie about something like the return of You-Know-Who! Disgraceful!"

"Thank you ma'am - uh, I mean Augusta," Harry corrected himself at her pointed look. "I am sorry I put Neville in danger though."

"It's all right Harry - I wanted to go, remember?" Neville said reassuringly.

It was true that Neville had wanted to go, and Harry was grateful for it - but he knew, now in retrospect, how reckless the whole trip to the Department of Mysteries had been on his part.

Neville, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna - any one of them could have been killed . . . just like Sirius had been.

Augusta had placed an arm around Neville and smiled proudly. "Takes after his father he does, more then _I_ even thought. Well, it was very nice to see you again young man," she said taking Harry's hand (with her free arm) and shaking it once again. "And it was nice meeting you as well young lady," she said, giving Dawn a nod.

"It was nice to see you again too. See you in a few weeks Neville," Harry replied.

"You too, Harry. Oh," Neville added, turning back again. "I don't think I ever said, but I am sorry about Sirius," he said quietly.

Harry gave him and thankful look. "Thanks Neville."

"Who's Sirius?" Dawn asked Harry after a pause, after Neville and his grandmother had departed for Diagon Alley.

"Oh, uh, he was my godfather," Harry explained. "He was killed a few weeks ago, by one of Voldemort's Death Eaters."

"Oh," Dawn noted her sympathy evident. "I'm sorry. Did - did someone use that killing curse on him?"

Harry shook his head. "No," he said, and then proceeded to tell her about what had happened at the Department of Mysteries with himself, Neville and the others . . . only glossing over a few details (namely, the bit about the prophecy regarding himself and Voldemort).

"I should have known it was a trap. Hermione could tell Voldemort was probably trying to set me up, but I wouldn't listen. All I could think about was helping Sirius," Harry concluded with a tired sigh. "I know it wasn't all my fault, but part of me still can't help but think that if I had, he wouldn't have . . . ."

"Gotten killed?" Dawn finished quietly.

Harry didn't say anything, though his silence more or less confirmed what Dawn had said.

"You were just trying to help someone you loved Harry," she told him gently. "It might've just as easily _not_ have been a trap. With things like that, sometimes you just have to take a risk - especially if it's someone you think of as family" A secret little smile crept across her face. "I know Buffy probably would have done the same thing for me that you tried to do for Sirius."

Despite Dawn's words, Harry still didn't feel very convinced. "Bet the slayer would've known it was a trap though," he noted.

"She probably would have," Dawn said with a nonchalant shrug, which took Harry slightly aback. (Despite his slight self-guilt, he hadn't really expected Dawn to agree so easily). "But she probably would have gone anyway," she continued without missing a beat. "Buffy may be the slayer and all, but even _she_ can make mistakes now and then. If we have time later, remind me to tell you what happened between Buffy and this crazy preacher guy at an Evil Vineyard," she informed him.

"Okay," Harry noted with a shrug and a slight chuckle, mostly due the words _evil_ and_ vineyard._

"So, what're those owl scores your friend mentioned? Some kind of test results involving birds?" she asked, skillfully changing the subject to something she probably thought would take his mind off his sadder thoughts about his godfather for a bit.

"Oh, double-u, ell," he explained. "It stands for 'Ordinary Wizarding Levels'. They're test you have to take at the end of your fifth year of school. We took ours a few months ago, and whatever career you want to do will depend of the O.W.L. scores you get that will allow you to study at that level."

"Oh. They sound kinda like the SATs," Dawn said thoughtfully. "Except those only determine what college you can probably get into or not. Do witches and wizards go to college? I mean are there any, like Wizarding-Only University around, like Oxford or something?" she asked

Harry shook his head. "None that I know of. For some careers you have to go through more training after you finish school, but that's about it."

"Oh." She had a slight frown on her face now. She paused for a moment, her expression growing more thoughtful. Then she looked at him again. "What do you want to do? When you finish school I mean?"

"Well, the only thing I ever really thought about being was an Auror actually," Harry told her.

"One of those people who catch Dark Wizards?" Dawn asked. "Given all the Voldemort stuff you've been through, I would think you'd be rather tired of the whole trying-to-stop-dark-wizards thing. Buffy always used to talk about how much she wished she could quit slaying and just have a normal life."

Harry shrugged. "It's really the only thing I've ever felt I had any interest in doing honestly," he explained, then sighed. "But it probably doesn't even matter, anyway. Snape only lets people who get a grade of 'O' on their potions O.W.L. take his advance potions class and you have to take that class to even be _considered_ for training to be an Auror. I know I didn't score high enough."

"And there's nothing else you've thought maybe about doing?" Dawn asked curiously.

"Not really. The only other thing I'm good at is Quidditch - though I never thought about doing it professionally." If he couldn't peruse his dream of being an Auror, then he truly had no idea what he wanted to do with the rest of his life . . . no matter how long or short the rest of it might actually be.

"Well, if you want, maybe you could talk to Giles about being a Watcher. Like I'm going to be," Dawn told him, as she popped one of the last of the chips into her mouth with a grin.

"A Watcher?" Harry asked curiously. Dawn had mentioned before that she was going to be a Watcher, but for some reason, he had never really thought of it as something one could just _choose_ as a career to have.

"Yep. Giles says I actually probably could have gotten into the Watcher's Academy this year, what with all the field experience I have, expect for the fact that, you know, the Academy got blown up. You know, along with the rest of the Council."

"And you think I could be one?" Harry asked doubtfully.

Dawn nodded. "Sure. Its kind-of like being an Auror, except you also help train slayers. And the slayers do most of the big demon-fighting and killing stuff since, you know, they actually have the strength for it. Plus," she added. "You have a quality that all the Watchers I've ever met all had."

Harry blinked. "What's that?"

She smiled, rather cheekily. "A British accent."

* * *

**Replies:**

First to everyone, thank you all so much for the kind words regarding my father's passing. It hasn't been easy I wont lie (my dad and I were really close). But I do appreciate all the kinds words more than you all can know.

**Magical Faerie** - I hope you got the PM I sent you (how many months was it ago now?) regarding the Interlude and that cleared up any confusion you had. If not just let me know.

**Aomizuoko** - I'm happy to hear you think my writing has personality in it. I admit, I have been trying to copy JKR's writing style in some respects with this story (I want it to feel like it's a "lost" Harry Potter book in a way), but I myself find "flat" writing boring to read. And the only way I really know how to do that is to make sure the characters don't feel flat. It's a lot of work, but it's fun.

Next Up - well, Part II of A Hellmouth Education. ;-D Till then!


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